PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
“NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Prof. Edward Everett HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1794
April 11, Friday: Edward Everett was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts (now a Boston suburb) to the Reverend Oliver Everett and Lucy Hill Everett.
NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT
Prof. Edward Everett “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1815
The North American Review was started in Boston under the editorship of William Tudor and would print his “Theology of the Hindoos as Taught by Ram Mohan Roy” as well as Theophilus Parson’s “Manners and Customs of India.” In 1817 it would pass into the control of a club of Boston gentlemen, who would make Jared Sparks chief editor, then Edward Tyrrell Channing, then in 1819 Edward Everett would assume the post. NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW MASTER INDEX
DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD.
Prof. Edward Everett “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1817
Edward Everett was the first American to receive the PhD of a German university. This was Göttingen, at which Alexander von Humboldt had studied.
Karl Theodor Christian Friedrich Follen was a primary organizer of the 1st Wartburgfest at the Schloss Wartburg near Eisenach, Germany. He did not himself attend the student festival, but was the author of political essays, poems, and patriotic songs espousing violence –up to and including tyrannicide– for the preservation of our freedoms.
LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD.
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Prof. Edward Everett HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1819
Adam Gurowski was expelled from the gymnasium of Kalisz, Poland for revolutionary demonstration (he would, at various German universities, continue his studies, being at one point a student of philosophy under G.W.F. Hegel; at some point he would lose an eye, presumably as the unintended but not to be unexpected result of a student saber duel of the sort then prevalent).
At about this period a Germanization of Boston intellectual culture would be beginning, with the return from study at German universities of George Ticknor1 and Edward Everett.
CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE
1. Both Waldo Emerson and Henry Thoreau would have classes under Professor Ticknor. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1821
Since Waldo Emerson began reading Alexander von Humboldt, and referring to him in his JOURNAL, at this point, it seems likely that he had been told of this explorer and author by his professor Edward Everett while at Harvard College.
Emerson would come to own many of Humboldt’s books and it is likely that it was in these volumes that Henry Thoreau first encountered the explorer (he would by 1853 have studied Humboldt’s major works).
Publication, in this year, by the firm of W. Allason etc., in London, of a new edition of the dozen volumes of Edward Gibbon’s THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (this is the edition that HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT would find its way into the personal library of Emerson). GIBBON, DECLINE & FALL I GIBBON, DECLINE & FALL II GIBBON, DECLINE & FALL III GIBBON, DECLINE & FALL IV GIBBON, DECLINE & FALL V GIBBON, DECLINE & FALL VI GIBBON, DECLINE & FALL VII GIBBON, DECLINE & FALL VIII GIBBON, DECLINE & FALL IX GIBBON, DECLINE & FALL X GIBBON, DECLINE & FALL XI GIBBON, DECLINE & FALL XII At the end of the journal entries for 1820 and 1821, Emerson listed his recent readings in Oriental materials: “Cudworth (containing many quotations from the Neo-Platonists); Zendavesta (apud Gibbon).”
http://www.sacred-texts.com/zor/ ZOROASTER HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT As he completed his senior year, Waldo wrote a Bowdoin Prize essay “The Present State of Ethical Philosophy.” From this year into 1825, having acquired the status of college graduate, he would be teaching school.
CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT
Prof. Edward Everett “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1822
August: The initial edition of an English translation of Professor Philip Karl Buttmann’s GRIECHISCHE SCHUL- GRAMMATIK, titled GREEK GRAMMAR FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS, FROM THE GERMAN OF PHILIP BUTTMANN (Boston: O. Everett, translated by Edward Everett of Cambridge, Massachusetts).2
THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Prof. Edward Everett
2. During this year and the following one Professor Buttmann was issuing his ÜBER DIE ALTEN NAMEN VON OSROËNE UND EDESSA, his ÜBER DIE KOTYTTIA UND DIE BAPTAE, and his VON DEN ALEUADEN. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1823
January: Although, before this date, Alexander von Humboldt was certainly known within scientific, political, and literary circles in the USA, for reviews of his work had been appearing in British magazines from at least 1810 and many of these, no doubt, were seen by American eyes, he seems not to have come into his own as a personage in the popular press until his COSMOS began appearing in English translation in 1845. An American who had followed the Edinburgh Review or the Quarterly Review (London) could have had an understanding of the nature of Humboldt’s writings and scientific theories without having glimpsed the volumes. Laura Dassow Walls has, however, been able to locate only one major article about Humboldt in the pre-COSMOS years in America, and it was an omnibus review of Humboldt’s works by Edward Everett in his North American Review of this date. In his review he took the tone of an educator introducing the American public
NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW MASTER INDEX
to an important but hitherto little-known Continental writer. He acknowledged the unavailability of the volumes of Messrs. de Humboldt and Bonpland in America, “and few persons, who have not had occasion HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
particularly to inform themselves, are acquainted with the precise state of a series of works, not yet completed, which constitutes already an era in American history, natural and civil.” Works “so important to America” deserved “to be known and prized in this country”; accordingly, he offered an account of Humboldt’s travels and an enumeration of the principle works published to that date. Though billed as a review of the two latest volumes in the series covering the American explorations, VII and VIII, Everett apologized after twenty-five
pages for not having left himself room to do so and instead offered his readership a “specimen, instructive as well as amusing, of their contents.” Subsequently, in the years from 1845 through 1860, it would have been possible for an American to know who Humboldt was and what he stood for through reviews, accounts, gossip, biographies and memorials appearing not only in the North American Review and the New Englander but also such venues as the Methodist Quarterly and Godey’s Lady’s Book.
WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF
Prof. Edward Everett “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1824
Professor Philip Karl Buttmann was made a knight of the Prussian Red Eagle of the 3d class. Republication in London of Edward Everett’s English translation of Professor Buttmann’s GRIECHISCHE SCHUL-GRAMMATIK, 3 titled GREEK GRAMMAR FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS, FROM THE GERMAN OF PHILIP BUTTMANN.
Samuel Gridley Howe graduated from Harvard Medical School and sailed to participate for six years in the Greek revolution, first as a soldier, then as a surgeon, then as a participant in the postwar reconstruction.
Professors George Ticknor, Edward Everett, and George Bancroft, as high-minded academic emissaries from the backwaters in America, went off to Europe to witness real cultural currents. These three Harvard men (Ticknor the professor of belles lettres; Everett the professor of classics, Bancroft the tutor) would later become important in Massachusetts politics. While in Europe the three scholars would come belatedly in contact with the writings left behind by Herr Professor Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Friedrich von Schelling, as well as with the contemporary writings of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Contact with German metaphysicians would reinforce the conservatism of Ticknor and Everett while developing in Bancroft what has been referred to as “democratic ideals.” Once safely back in Cambridge, the three would serve as catalysts for the new view of the world. Ticknor would advocate a really higher education, such as transforming Harvard into a university by broadening its curriculum and testing and grading students rather than tolerating advancement through mere seniority. The Reverend William Ellery Channing would also be being challenged by these three visitors to real culture, from the 1830s on, to formulate his new Unitarianism.
3. During this year Professor Buttmann was issuing his ERKLÄRUNG DER GRIECHISCHEN BEISCHRIFT AUF EINEM ÄGYPTISCHEN PAPYRUS. In this year he suffered his initial attack of apoplexy. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
December 22, Wednesday: Edward Everett orated at Plymouth, Massachusetts. This would be published by Cummings, Hilliard & Company at 134 Washington Street in Boston and we infer that this publication likely is the source for a declamation that 13-year-old David Henry Thoreau would perform at the Concord Academy in 1830. EVERETT AT PLYMOUTH
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 22 of 12 M / Last evening I recd a long letter from my Ancient frd Moses Brown & this Afternoon one from my friend Thomas Thompson of Liverpool. — There seem like a brook by the way - or refreshment in a dry season. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Prof. Edward Everett HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1825
Georg Heinrich Bode’s ORPHIC POETRY was reviewed by Professor Edward Everett in the North American Review.
E. EVERETT ON BODE (It has seemed plausible to suppose that this review may well have, in a later year, come to the attention of Henry Thoreau.)
George Henry Bode would be teaching classical languages at George Bancroft’s and Joseph Cogswell’s Round Hill Academy in Northampton for three school years.
Nicholas Marcellus Hentz’s A CLASSICAL FRENCH READER: SELECTED FROM THE BEST WRITERS OF THAT LANGUAGE, IN PROSE AND POETRY: PRECEDED BY AN INTRODUCTION DESIGNED TO FACILITATE THE STUDY OF THE RUDIMENTS OF THE FRENCH, AND ATTENDED WITH NOTES EXPLANATORY OF IDIOMS, ETC. THROUGHOUT HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
THE WORK: COMPILED FOR THE USE OF THE ROUND HILL SCHOOL (Boston: Published by Richardson & Lord; H. Ferry, printer, Northampton). Also, his TADEUSKUND, THE LAST KING OF THE LENAPE. AN HISTORICAL TALE (Boston: Cummings, Hilliard, & Co.; Printed by Hilliard and Metcalf), a fictionalized account of the Paxton massacres on the Pennsylvania frontier in 1763.
Hentz’s “Some observations on the Anatomy and Physiology of the Alligator of North America” appeared in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
April 19, Tuesday: Concord’s orator of the day was Representative Edward Everett, 60 survivors assembled,
of the dustup between the militia and the army of 1775, and a foundation-stone for a monument was positioned in the town square: “Here on the 19th of April 1775 began the war of that Revolution which gave Independence to America.” Some Concordians, however, were rather irritated at their committee’s decision to situate this monument at such a distance from the actual battlesite. The pamphlet of Major Elias Phinney was issued by the town of Lexington, detailing the depositions of their survivors to the effect that it had been Lexington, not Concord, that had been the site of the first “battle” between the militia and the army troops, and that it had been
Lexington blood, not Concord blood, which “became the first offering upon the altar of their country’s freedom.” “Inhabitants of Lexington feel it to be particularly incumbent on them to lay this statement of facts before the publick, on account of some recent publications stating that ‘at Concord the first blood was shed between the British and the armed Americans.’”4 OLD NORTH BRIDGE PATRIOTS’ DAY
4. Phinney, Elias. HISTORY OF THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON, ON THE MORNING OF THE 19TH OF APRIL 1775. Boston MA: Phelps and Farnham, 1825 HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
Because of this controversy which arose between these competing-for-the-tourist-dollar towns half a century after the events, as to which one of the two had been the true righteous manly aggressor which was by right to be annually celebrated versus which one the mere supine effeminate victim which ought to be annually neglected, Lemuel Shattuck would need to add a special appendix to his 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;...:
HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE EVIDENCE RELATING TO THE EVENTS OF THE 19TH APRIL, 1775. FIFTY years after the events of the 19th of April, 1775, occurred, some statements relating to the history of those events became the subject of controversy. The following questions embrace the most material points in discussion. 1. Did the Lexington company disperse as directed by the British officers? and were they first fired upon while dispersing? 2. Was the first forcible resistance to the British armed soldiers made by the provincials at Lexington in the morning; and did they then return the fire of the enemy? Some Individuals are satisfied with a history which describes the whole of the events of that day under the local name of Lexington Battle, whether reference be had to the affair at Lexington in the morning, or to the fight at Concord, or to that in the afternoon, continued during the whole course of the retreat from Concord to Charlestown; and they will consider it of little importance how these questions are answered. But those who regard truth as important in historical matters, even in minute particulars, will look at the subject in a different light. Without any intentions of reviving the controversy, or of stating at length the reasons for the opinions I entertain, or of casting a comparative shade over the honor acquired by the brave “sons of liberty” in either town for the part they acted, I deem it due to historical truth to make the following detail of facts, that the subject may be fairly understood; and that those who entertain or promulgate opinions relating to these historical events, may have the means of doing it accurately. The origin of this controversy will appear from the following HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
statements. On the 2d of September, 1824, Lafayette passed through Lexington and Concord; and in an address to him in Concord, the Hon. Samuel Hoar said, “You now behold the spot on which the first forcible resistance was made” to British oppression. The same idea had often been given before by Morse, Worcester and others, who had in their Gazetteers, described the geography of the town. In the following October the Bunker Hill Monument Association published an address to the public, soliciting subscriptions in aid of its objects, in which it is said, “At Concord the first [British] blood was shed between the British and armed Americans.” — “It is also intended to erect a suitable monument at Concord, where the first conflict was had, bearing proper inscriptions to commemorate the glorious spirit of independence which manifested itself there.” This produced two illiberal newspaper articles in “The Boston Patriot,” and a reply from the Hon. William Sullivan, chairman of the committee. During the approaching winter the citizens of Concord made arrangements to celebrate by public performances the fiftieth anniversary of the 19th of April, 1775. The Hon. Edward Everett was engaged as the orator, and Lexington and the neighboring towns were invited to unite in the ceremony. The Bunker Hill Monument Association appropriated $500, — which was somewhat less than the amount of the subscriptions to that Association in Concord, — towards the erection of a monument in that town, and sent to the committee of arrangements a plan of the monument, and proposed that the cornerstone should be laid on the day of the celebration.5 In the mean time the inhabitants of Lexington had taken measures to collect and publish a statement, intended, as we are informed in the preface to the publication, to counteract the influence of the two statements above mentioned; and also the testimony given under oath in 1775; and the narrative of the Rev. Mr. Clark published in 1776. The result of these measures was, “The History of the Battle of Lexington,” written by Elias Phinney, Esq., a member of the committee chosen by the town for that purpose. This pamphlet was placed in the hands of the honorable and accomplished orator, and he states in a note to the historical Oration, pronounced at the celebration, that his “aim has been not to pronounce on questions in controversy,” - “reference being had to the testimony contained” in Mr. Phinney’s pamphlet. These two publications (the Oration and History) appeared in print about the same time; and, so far as relates to the particular facts in question, stand equally on controversial ground. In 1827, “the Rev. Ezra Ripley, D.D., and other citizens of Concord, published a “History of the Fight at Concord,” intended to invalidate some of the statements contained in the two pamphlets just mentioned. All three of these publications, though they contain much valuable historical matter, must be considered in regard to the points at issue, controversial. About the time these publications were made, several highly controversial articles appeared in the newspapers; but they 5. This money has been vested on interest by the town for this object. The directors of the Bunker Hill Monument Association have also more recently pledged themselves to pay the additional sum of $1000; and when received, the whole will be appropriated to building a monument, probably on the very spot where the first British blood was shed, — where the first British life was taken, in the cause of American liberty, and where are the graves of the slain. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
cannot be regarded by candid minds in the serious light of historical truth. A new lithographic edition of Doolittle’s Historical Engraving, first published in 1775, also appeared. In the original no one is represented as firing at the British soldiers at Lexington, but several as dispersing and some as slain. As this would be rather an awkward representation of a battle, the editors, as is sometimes the practice of historians, thought fit to improve the original to suit their views of what the engagement should have been. From this picture wood cuts have been prepared, which appear in some school-books to perpetuate error. The original evidence, which was for the first time obtained and printed in the above pamphlets, was taken ex parte, and designed, so far as relates to the question at issue, to establish some particular facts in controversy, and cannot therefore be considered strictly impartial. If there was an influence which produced defective evidence in 1775, as has been stated, it is not more reasonable to suppose that some other influence, operating fifty years afterwards, when the facts could not be so distinctly remembered, and the points then in controversy were a subject of frequent conversation, might produce evidence so stated and expressed as to give erroneous impressions? Whatever weight might be attached to either of these publications, no accurate historian will be satisfied with their statements merely, or pronounce on questions in controversy, without a reference to the whole original evidence. In this case, as well as in many others, where historians copy the errors of other writers, it will be found to differ materially from the modern version. And what are the original sources of the evidence? What is its purport? And how was it understood? Some account of those events was published in the “Essex Gazette” of April 21st and 25th, and May 5th, 1775, which, including an introduction, a list of the killed and wounded, and a “Funeral elegy to the immortal memory of those worthies which were slain in the Battle of Concord, April 19, 1775,” soon after appeared in a hand-bill 20 inches long and 15 wide, entitled “Bloody Butchery by the British Troops, or the Runaway Fight of the Regulars”; — “being the Particulars of the Victorious Battle fought at and near Concord.” Just above the title were pictured 40 coffins over which were printed the names of the slain. On the 22d of April a committee of the Provincial Congress, consisting of Col. Elbridge Gerry of Marblehead, Hon. Thomas Cushing of Cohasset, Col. James Barrett of Concord, Capt. Josiah Stone of Dracut, Dr. John Taylor of Lunenburgh, Mr. Samuel Freeman of Falmouth, Abraham Watson, Esq. of Cambridge, and Jonas Dix, Esq. of Waltham, were chosen to take the depositions relating to the conduct of the British on the 19th [of April, 1775]; another was appointed to draw up a narrative, and another to make an additional copy of the depositions. After it was collected, the evidence was transmitted to the Continental Congress, and to England;6 part of it was published in the “Pennsylvania Ledger,” and copied into other American and English newspapers. The whole was published by Isaiah Thomas, by an order of the Provincial Congress passed May 28th, in a HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
pamphlet of 22 pages, 8vo., entitled, “A Narrative of the Incursions and Ravages of the King’s Troops under command of General Gage on the Nineteenth of April, 1775, together with the Depositions taken by order of Congress to support the truth of it.” The pamphlet was ordered to be sent to every town in the province, though I have seen but one copy, which is owned by William Lincoln, Esq., of Worcester. These depositions were all taken the next week after the battle; and it is a fact worthy of notice, that those relating to Concord were dated the 23d [of April, 1775], and those relating to Lexington the 25th of April. “A Narrative of the Concord Fight, with 104 Depositions to support the truth of it,” was written by the Rev. Mr. Gordon of Roxbury, and published in George’s Almanac for 1776, “by particular desire and for the use of the gentlemen officers and soldiers of the American Army.” Lowe’s Almanac for that year contains another account by the same gentleman, describing “what he saw, or collected from unquestionable authority on the spot,” relating to the same events. The Rev. Jonas Clark published his Narrative, referred to in our General History, in connexion with his Anniversary Sermon in 1776. He informs us that he was an eye-witness, and that it is “a plain and faithful narrative of facts, as they appeared unto us in this place.” A “circumstantial account,” of this affair was transmitted by Gov. Gage to Gov. Trumbull;7 and an official account was sent to England, which was not published by the ministry till June 10th, and which drew forth some severe but well deserved criticisms in the “Remembrancer” and other English papers. Gordon says it “had little truth in it;” and all who had even an imperfect knowledge of the facts will say the same. This statement of the material facts is contradicted by the original depositions, by Mr. Clark’s Narrative, and by all the recent publications above noticed. It was so drawn up as especially to answer a particular purpose, and as a lame apology of Gage to England for murdering innocent citizens. It was probably compiled from letters of Smith and Percy, or from a narrative of the occurrences written by Ensign D. Bernicre, which was left in Boston, when the British evacuated it, and published in 1779, says the title, “for the information and amusement of the curious.”8 This remark in some measure shows the estimation in which its statements were then held. It was not believed by most of the English historians of those time, who have been considered accurate and impartial; though some, who appear willing to adopt the errors of others from prejudice or without careful investigation, have believed and sent it forth as truth. These were all the material printed original sources of 6. Capt. John Derby of Salem was despatched with these papers to England, where he arrived the 29th of May [1775]. He was the bearer of the “Essex Gazette,” containing the first published account of these events, which was printed and circulated in London on the day of his arrival, and gave the first notice of the affair in England. It produced great commotion. General Gage’s official account, although despatched four days before Capt. Derby sailed, did not arrive until the 10th of June, eleven days after Capt. Derby’s arrival, subjecting the ministry to no small embarrassment and chagrin. The depositions taken out by Capt. Derby were the originals first taken, and contain the real signatures of the deponents. They were intended for the British government, but for some causes not known were never communicated. They have been returned to this country, and are now in the Library of Harvard College. See Washington’s Writings, Vol. III. p. 35. The depositions and the letters sent by Capt. Derby may be found in the printed Journals of Congress for 1775. 7.2 Massachusetts Historical Collections, ii, p. 224. 8.2 Massachusetts Historical Collections, iv, p. 215. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
evidence.9 Most other writers anterior to 1825 have described the events without being eye-witnesses, — without thorough examination, or have been mere copyists from some one of these authorities with comments to suit their own peculiar views. And what is the purport of this evidence? In these depositions, Capt. Parker, commander of the Lexington company, testifies under oath, that on the approach of the British troops he “immediately ordered the militia to disperse, and not to fire; immediately said troops made their appearance.” John Robbins, that when commanded by the British troops to disperse, they did disperse before any firing took place. 34 others, that “the company began to disperse, and, when their backs were turned upon the troops, they were fired upon.” Timothy Smith, that “the troops marched up to the company then dispersing” before the firing. Thomas Fessendon, that “as soon as ever the officer cried, ‘Disperse, you rebels,’ the said company dispersed as fast as they could; and, while they were dispersing, the regulars kept firing at them.” Edward T. Gould, a British officer, that “on our approach they dispersed, and, soon after, firing began.” The Rev. Mr. Clark fully confirms these depositions. The British account says, “when the troops came within one hundred yards of them they began to file off towards some stone walls.” How was this testimony understood? Isaiah Thomas, in the Massachusetts Spy of May 3d, 1775, published an account of this affair, “collected from those whose veracity is unquestioned,” in which he says, “it is to be noticed they fired upon our people as they were dispersing agreeably to their command, and that they did not even return the fire.” — “Thus did the troops of the British king fire first at two several times [at Lexington and Concord] upon his loyal American subjects, and put a period to ten lives before a gun was fired upon them. Our people THEN returned the fire and obliged them to retreat.” The London “Remembrancer” (Vol. I, p. 56) says, “The positive oaths and veracity of witnesses render it unquestionable that the King’s troops began the fire, and that too upon a very small body of provincials who were dispersing.” Gordon, in the Narrative to which I have referred, says, “Upon seeing the regulars they dispersed.” — “The Lexington company upon seeing these troops, and being of themselves so unequal a match for them, were deliberating for a few moments what they should do, when several dispersing of their own heads, the Captain soon ordered the rest to disperse for their own safety.” This was before the firing of the British. “They killed 3 or 4 on the common, the rest on the other side of the walls, and while dispersing.” This is confirmed by the British account. The Rev. Mr. Pemberton says, “They were fired upon while dispersing;”10 and repeats the same idea in his manuscript history. It has been said that this evidence was “ex parte and made for particular purposes,” — to decided the question “whether the Americans fired first, and not whether they fired at all.” It has also been said, that those “who gave in their evidence would not disclose any “facts which might in all probability expose themselves or their friends to the British halter.” These 9. The letter of Paul Revere relates to other occurrences of the day not in controversy. 1 Hist. Coll., Vol. v. p. 106. 10. 1 Massachusetts Historical Collections, ii, p. 48. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
objections, to be of force, must, as seems to me, apply equally to all the testimony, to that which relates to Concord as well as to Lexington; and even to the Narrative of Mr. Clark. The Concord deponents testified before “Gen. Gage and other apologists of British outrage,” (in the language of Mr. Phinney’s preface,) “had asserted that the people of Lexington commenced the attack on the king’s troops; and they testified two days before the Lexington deponents gave in their testimony to the same committee. If the Lexington company returned the fire, why, it has been asked, should they not have testified to it after the Concord deponents had done it? Why should one fear the halter more than the other? And why should it be more criminal in one to tell the whole truth than in the other? And it is especially difficult to perceive how Mr. Clark should be influenced by such or any other improper motives. His Narrative was drawn up after being a year on the spot, and after daily conversations on the subject. It is not easy to perceive how any motive could have influenced him to make an imperfect statement, or “color it for a particular purpose.” He could not have suppressed the truth, because he feared “the halter”; nor was it necessary at that time to rouse the indignation of the Americans towards the British by erroneous statements, nor to refute their assertions, nor to show that they had committed “the most deliberate murder” at Lexington. Bunker Hill battle had been fought, Washington for some time had had the command of the army; and, among other great events, the enemy had removed from our neighborhood, and evacuated Boston. Why should his Narrative not be believed and received as he says it is, — as “a plain and faithful Narrative of facts as they appeared to us in this place” [Lexington]? And with far more authority than any foreign historian? None of the original authorities to which I have referred, states that the fire was returned, though it is inferred from what is testified that some guns were fired. But these could not have been fired till after Capt. Parker had “ordered the militia to disperse and not to fire.” — “Very few of our people,” says Mr. Clark, “fired at all; and even they did not fire till, after being fired upon by the troops, they were wounded themselves, or saw others killed, or wounded by them, and looked upon it next to impossible to escape.” But does not the expression returning the fire, as usually understood, convey some other meaning than that implied by Mr. Clark? Would two or three guns from behind the walls or from neighboring houses or even on the common, on each one’s own responsibility, after orders had been given by the commanding officers, “to disperse and not to fire,” be considered, in military affairs, or in the ordinary use of language, as returning the fire, and making a regular, forcible resistance? Whether any British blood was shed or not at Lexington in the morning, so far as regards the sources of evidence to which we have adverted, rests entirely on the assertion in the British account, that a single man was wounded in the leg. Whether this be true is problematical, since this account is not now relied on by any one as authority. It is not pretended by anyone, that a single individual of the enemy was killed at Lexington in the morning. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
Notwithstanding the distinguished part Concord acted on that occasion, her citizens never took the trouble to have the particulars published to the world. This is partly to be ascribed to the premature death of that devoted patriot, the Rev. William Emerson. He and several others left matter in manuscript which has aided me in this work. Lexington, on the other hand, celebrated the day by military parades and religious services on eight successive anniversaries; and the sermons preached on the occasion were printed. The legislature also granted on the 28th of February, 1797, on the petition of Joseph Simonds, then a representative from Lexington, $200 to erect a monument in that town. Mr. Thomas Park of Harvard built the monument. After some progress had been made in its erection it was found that a further sum would be necessary to complete it, and the Selectmen petitioned for more aid. $200 more were granted on the 13th of January, 1798.11 It was proper that such a monument should be placed there; and the inscription it bears is happily designed for its object. This monument, however, and the celebrations above noticed, combined with various other circumstances, have tended to take off the public mind from an examination of the whole history of the events on the 19th of April, 1775, and to mark this spot for other purposes than the monument was intended - the spot where the first American blood was shed; where the first American life was taken. The inhabitants of Lexington deserve great credit for the stand they took in the morning, and the part they acted during the day. That her militia were slain with arms in their hands is an important fact, and highly honorable to their patriotism and valor. As to resistance there, it is not contended by anyone that any was made or attempted, which could have impeded the progress of the troops. Mr. Clark speaks of the place, as “the field, not of battle, but of murder and bloodshed.” This was undoubtedly true. It would have been rash and inconsiderate for 70 militia men to have placed themselves in the attitude of opposition to 800 chosen troops; and much more so to have engaged in a battle. It would have been folly and not bravery. It was much more honorable to disperse. It was not so at Concord. There the circumstances were different, and the numbers of both opposing parties more nearly equal. All testimony concurs in saying that there was cool, deliberate and effectual opposition, by order of the commanding officer. There was the first forcible resistance — there the enemy were first compelled to retreat; and there the first British life was taken.
I annex all the depositions taken by authority of the Provincial Congress, and published officially in the pamphlet of which we have given the title on page 336 [“A Narrative of the Incursions and Ravages of the King’s Troops under command of General Gage on the Nineteenth of April, 1775, together with the Depositions taken by order of Congress to support the truth of it.”]. The signatures of the deponents and the certificates of the Justices of the Peace and Notaries Public, only, are omitted. “We, SOLOMON BROWN, JONATHAN LORING, and ELIJAH SANDERSON, 11. Resolves of the General Court. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
all of lawful age and of Lexington, in the County of Middlesex, and Colony of the Massachusetts-Bay, in New England, do testify and declare, That on the evening of the eighteenth of April [1775] instant, being on the road between Lexington and Concord, and all of us mounted on horses, we were, about ten of the clock, suddenly surprised by nine persons whom we took to be regular officers, who rode up to us, mounted and armed, each holding a pistol in his hand, and after putting pistols to our breasts, and seizing the bridles of our horses, they swore that if we stirred another step we should be all dead men, upon which we surrendered ourselves, they detained us until two o’clock the next morning, in which time they searched and greatly abused us, having first enquired about the magazine at Concord, whether any guards were posted there and whether the bridges were up, and said four or five regiments of regulars would be in possession of the stores soon, they then brought us back to Lexington, cut the horses bridles and girts, turned them loose, and then left us. “Lexington, April 25th, 1775. “I, ELIJAH SANDERSON above-named, do further testify and declare that I was in Lexington Common the morning of the nineteenth of April [1775] aforesaid, having been dismissed by the officers above-mentioned, and saw a large body of regular troops advancing towards Lexington Company, many of whom were then dispersing, I heard one of the regulars, whom I took to be an officer, say, ‘Damn them we will have them,’ and immediately the regulars shouted aloud, run, and fired on the Lexington Company, which did not fire a gun before the regulars discharged on them, eight of the Lexington Company were killed, while they were dispersing and at considerable distance from each other, and many wounded, and, although a spectator, I narrowly escaped with my life. “Lexington, April 25th, 1775.” “I, THOMAS RICE WILLARD, of lawful age, do testify and declare, that being in the house of Daniel Harrington, of Lexington, on the nineteenth instant, in the morning, about half an hour before sun-rise, looked out the window of said house and saw (as I suppose) about four hundred of the regulars in one body coming up the road and marched toward the north part of the Common back of the meeting-house, of said Lexington, and as soon as said regulars were against the East-End of the meeting- house, the commanding officer said something, what I know not, but upon that the regulars ran till they came within about eight or nine rods of about an hundred of the militia of Lexington who were collected on said common, at which time the militia of Lexington dispersed, then the officers made an huzza, and the private soldiers succeeded them, directly after this, an officer rode before the regulars, to the other side of the body, and hollowed after the Militia of said HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
Lexington and said, ‘Lay down your arms, damn you, why don’t you lay down your arms,’ and that there was not a gun fired till the militia of Lexington were dispersed, and further saith not. “April 23d, 1775.” “Lexington, 25th of April, 1775. “SIMON WINSHIP of Lexington, in the county of Middlesex, and province of the Massachusetts-Bay, in New England, being of lawful age testifieth and saith, that on the nineteenth of April instant, about four o’clock in the morning, as he was passing the public road in said Lexington, peaceably and unarmed, about two miles and an half distant from the meeting-house in said Lexington, he was met by a body of the King’s regular troops, and being stopped by some officers of said troops was commanded to dismount, upon asking why he must dismount, he was obliged by force to quit his horse, and ordered to march in the midst of the body, and being examined whether he had been warning the minute-men he answered no, but had been out and was then returning to his father’s. Said Winship further testifies, that he marched with said troops until he became about half a quarter of a mile of said meeting- house, where an officer commanded the troops to halt, and then to prime and load; this being done, the said troops marched on till they came within a few rods of Capt. Parker, and company, who were partly collected on the place of parade, when said Winship observed an officer at the head of said troops, flourishing his sword and with a loud voice giving the word ‘Fire,’ which was instantly followed by a discharge of arms from said regular troops, and said Winship is positive, and in the most solemn manner declares, that there was no discharge of arms on either side, till the word fire was given by said officer as above.” “Lexington, April 25th, 1775. “I, JOHN PARKER, of lawful age, and commander of the militia in Lexington, do testify and declare, that, on the 19th instant, in the morning about one of the clock, being informed that there were a number of the regular officers riding up and down the road, stopping and insulting people as they passed the road, and also was informed that a number of the regular troops were on their march from Boston, in order to take the province stores at Concord, ordered our militia to meet on the common in said Lexington, to consult what to do, and concluded not to be discovered nor meddle or make with said regular troops (if they should approach) unless they should insult or molest us, and upon their sudden approach, I immediately ordered our militia to disperse and not to fire. Immediately said troops made their appearance and rushing furiously, fired upon and killed eight of our party, without receiving any provocation HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
therefor from us.” “Lexington, April 24th, 1775. “I, JOHN ROBBINS, being of lawful age, do testify and say, that on the 19th instant, the company under the command of Captain John Parker, being drawn up sometime before sunrise, on the green or common, and I being in the front rank, there suddenly appeared a number of the King’s troops, about a thousand, as I thought, at the distance of about sixty or seventy yards from us, hussaing, and on quick pace towards us, with three officers in their front on horseback, and on full gallop towards us, the foremost of which cried, ‘Throw down your arms, ye villains, ye rebels,’ upon which said company dispersing, the foremost of the three officers ordered their men, saying, ‘Fire, by God, fire,’ at which moment, we received a very heavy and close fire from them, at which instant, being wounded, I fell, and several of our men were shot dead by me. Capt. Parker’s men, I believe, had not fired a gun, and further the deponent saith not.” “We, BENJAMIN TIDD, of Lexington, and JOSEPH ABBOT, of Lincoln, in the county of Middlesex, and colony of the Massachusetts-Bay, in New England, of lawful age, do testify and declare, that on the morning of the nineteenth of April instant, about five o’clock, being on Lexington common and mounted on horses, we saw a body of Regular Troops marching up to the Lexington company which was then dispersing; soon after, the regulars fired, first a few guns, which we took to be pistols, from some of the regulars who were mounted on horses, and then the said regulars fired a volley or two before any guns were fired by the Lexington company. Our horses immediately started and we rode off and further say not. “Lexington, April 25th, 1775.” “We, NATHANIEL M ULLIKEN, PHILIP R USSELL, MOSES H ARRINGTON, JUN., THOMAS HARRINGTON, DANIEL HARRINGTON, WILLIAM GRISMER, WILLIAM TIDD, ISAAC HASTINGS, JONAS STONE, Jun., JAMES WYMAN, THADDEUS HARRINGTON, JOHN CHANDLER, JOSHUA REED, Jun., JOSEPH SIMONDS, PHINEAS SMITH, JOHN CHANDLER, Jun., REUBEN LOCK, JOEL VILES, NATHAN REED, SAMUEL TIDD, BENJAMIN LOCK, THOMAS WINSHIP, SIMEON SNOW, JOHN SMITH, MOSES HARRINGTON, 3d., JOSHUA REED, EBENEZER PARKER, JOHN HARRINGTON, ENOCH WILLINGTON, JOHN HOSMER, ISAAC GREEN, PHINEAS STEARNS, ISAAC DURANT, and THOMAS HEADLY, Jun., all of lawful age, and inhabitants of Lexington, in the county of Middlesex, and Colony of the Massachusetts- Bay, in New England, do testify and declare, that on the 19th of April instant, about one or two o’clock in the morning, being informed that several officers of the regulars had, the evening before, been riding up and down the road, and had detained and insulted the inhabitants passing the same, and also understanding that a body of regulars were marching from Boston towards Concord, with intent (as it was supposed) to take the stores belonging to the colony in that town, HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
we were alarmed and having met at the place of our company’s parade, were dismissed by our Captain, John Parker, for the present, with orders to be ready to attend at the beat of a drum, we further testify and declare, that about five o’clock in the morning, hearing our drum beat, we proceeded towards the parade, and soon found that a large body of troops were marching towards us, some of our company were coming up to the parade and others had reached it, at which time the company began to disperse, whilst our backs were turned on the troops, we were fired on by them, and a number of our men were instantly killed and wounded, not a gun was fired by any person in our company on the regulars, to our knowledge, before they fired on us, and they continued firing until we had all made our escape. “Lexington, April 25th, 1775.” “We, NATHANIEL PARKHURST, JONAS PARKER, JOHN MUNROE, Jun., JOHN WINSHIP, SOLOMON PIERCE, JOHN MUZZY, ABNER MEADS, JOHN BRIDGE, Jun., EBENEZER B OWMAN, WILLIAM M UNROE, 3d, MICAH H AGAR, SAMUEL SANDERSON, SAMUEL HASTINGS, and JAMES BROWN, of Lexington in the county of Middlesex and colony of the Massachusetts-Bay, in New England, and all of lawful age, do testify and say, that on the morning of the nineteenth of April, instant, about one or two o’clock, being informed that a number of regular officers had been riding up and down the road the evening and night preceding, and that some of the inhabitants as they were passing had been insulted by the officers and stopped by them, and being also informed that the regular troops were on the march from Boston, in order (as it was said) to take the colony stores then deposited in Concord, we met on the parade [grounds] of our company in this town; after the company had collected, we were ordered by Capt. John Parker (who commanded us) to disperse for the present, and to be ready to attend the beat of the drum, and accordingly the company went into houses near the place of parade. We further testify and say, that about five o’clock in the morning, we attended the beat of our drum, and were formed on the parade; we were faced toward the regulars then marching up to us, and some of our company were coming to the parade with their backs towards the troops, and others on the parade began to disperse, when the regulars fired on the company, before a gun was fired by any of our company on them; they killed eight of our company and wounded several, and continued their fire until we had all made our escape.” “Lexington, 25th April, 1775.” “I, TIMOTHY SMITH of Lexington, in the county of Middlesex and colony of Massachusetts-Bay, in New England, being of lawful age, do testify and declare, that on the morning of the nineteenth of April instant, being at Lexington common, as a spectator, I saw a large body of regular troops, marching up towards the Lexington company, then dispersing, and likewise saw HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
the regular troops fire on the Lexington company, before the latter fired a gun. I immediately ran, and a volley was discharged at me, which put me in imminent danger of losing my life: I soon returned to the Common, and saw eight of the Lexington men who were killed, and lay bleeding at a considerable distance from each other, and several were wounded; and further saith not. “Lexington, April 25th, 1775.” “We, LEVI MEAD and LEVI HARRINGTON, both of Lexington, in the county of Middlesex, and colony of the Massachusetts-Bay, in New England, and of lawful age, do testify and declare, that on the morning of the nineteenth of April, being on Lexington Common, as spectators, we saw a large body of regular troops marching up towards the Lexington company, and some of the regulars on horses, whom we took to be officers, fired a pistol or two on the Lexington company, which was then dispersing. These were the first guns that were fired, and they were immediately followed by several volleys from the regulars, by which eight men belonging to said company were killed, and several wounded. “Lexington, April 25th, 1775.” “Lexington, April 25th, 1775. “I, WILLIAM DRAPER, of lawful age, and an inhabitant of Colrain, in the county of Hampshire, and colony of the Massachusetts-Bay, in New England, do testify and declare, that being on the parade of said Lexington, April 19th, instant, about half an hour before sunrise, the King’s regular troops appeared at the meeting-house of Lexington; Captain [John] Parker’s company, who were drawn up back of said meetinghouse on the parade [grounds], turned from said troops, making their escape by dispersing, in the mean time the regular troops made an huzza, and ran towards Captain Parker’s company who were dispersing, and, immediately after the huzza was made, the commanding officer of said troops (as I took him), gave the command to the troops, ‘Fire, fire, damn you, fire,’ and immediately they fired, before any of Captain Parker’s company fired, I then being within three or four rods of said regular troops, and further saith not. “Lexington, April 23d, 1775. “I, THOMAS FESSENDEN, of lawful age, testify and declare, that being in a pasture near the meeting-house, at said Lexington, on Wednesday last, at about half an hour before sunrise, I saw a number of regular troops pass speedily by said meeting-house, on their way towards a company of militia of said Lexington, who were assembled to the number of about an hundred in a company, at the distance of eighteen or twenty rods from the meeting- house, and, after they had passed by said meeting-house, I saw three officers on horseback advance to the front of said regulars, when one of them, being within six rods of said militia, cried out, ‘Disperse you rebels, HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
immediately,’ on which he brandished his sword over his head three times; meanwhile the second officer, who was about two rods behind him, fired a pistol, pointed at said militia, and the regulars kept huzzaing till he had finished brandishing his sword, and when he had thus finished, he pointed it down towards the militia and immediately on which, the said regulars fired a volley at said militia, and then I ran off as fast as I could, while they continued firing till I got out of their reach. I further testify that as soon as ever the officer cried, ‘Disperse, you rebels,’ the said company of militia dispersed every way as fast as they could, and while they were dispersing, the regulars kept firing at them incessantly, and further saith not.” “Lincoln, April 23d, 1775. “I, JOHN BATEMAN, belonging to the fifty-second regiment, commanded by Colonel Jones, on Wednesday morning, on the nineteenth of April instant, was in the party marching to Concord, being at Lexington in the county of Middlesex, being nigh the meeting-house in said Lexington, there was a small party of men gathered together in that place, when our said troops marched by, and I testify and declare, that I heard the word of command given to the troops to fire, and some of said troops did fire, and I saw one of said small party lie dead on the ground nigh said meeting-house, and I testify, that I never heard any of the inhabitants so much as fire one gun on said troops.” “Lexington, April 23d, 1775. “We, JOHN HOAR, JOHN WHITEHEAD, ABRAHAM GARFIELD, BENJAMIN MUNROE, ISAAC PARKS, WILLIAM HOSMER, JOHN ADAMS, and GREGORY STONE, all of Lincoln, in the county of Middlesex, Massachusetts-Bay, all of legal age, do testify and say, that on Wednesday last, we were assembled at Concord, in the morning of said day, in consequence of information received, that a brigade of regular troops were on their march to the said town of Concord, who had killed six men at the town of Lexington; about an hour afterwards we saw them approaching, to the number, as we apprehended, of about twelve hundred, on which we retreated to a hill about eighty rods back, and the said troops then took possession of the hill where we were first posted; presently after this, we saw the troops moving towards the North Bridge about one mile from the said Concord Meeting-house, we then immediately went before them and passed the bridge, just before a party of them, to the number of about two hundred arrived: They there left about one half of their two hundred at the bridge and proceeded with the rest towards Colonel Barret’s, about two miles from the said bridge; we then, seeing several fires in the town, thought the houses in Concord were in danger, and marched towards the said bridge, and the troops who were stationed there, observing our approach, marched back over the bridge, HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
and then took up some of the plank; we then hastened our march towards the bridge, and when we had got near the bridge, they fired on our men, first, three guns one after the other, and then a considerable number more, and then, and not before, (having orders from our commanding officers not to fire till we were fired upon), we fired upon the regulars, and they retreated; on their retreat through this town and Lexington, to Charlestown, they ravaged and destroyed private property and burned three houses, one barn, and one shop.” “Lexington, April 23d, 1775. “We, NATHAN BARRET, Captain; JONATHAN FARRER, JOSEPH BUTLER, and FRANCIS WHEELER, Lieutenants; JOHN BARRET, Ensign; JOHN BROWN, SILAS WALKER, EPHRAIM MELVIN, NATHAN BUTTERICK, STEPHEN HOSMER, Jun., SAMUEL BARRETT, THOMAS JONES, JOSEPH CHANDLER, PETER WHEELER, NATHAN PIERCE, and EDWARD RICHARDSON, all of Concord, in the county of Middlesex, in the province of the Massachusetts-Bay, of lawful age, testify and declare, that on Wednesday, the 19th instant, about an hour after sunrise, we assembled on a hill near the meeting-house in Concord, aforesaid, in consequence of an information that a number of regular troops had killed six of our countrymen at Lexington and were on their march to said Concord, and about an hour after we saw them approaching, to the number, as we imagine, of about twelve hundred, on which we retreated to a hill about eighty rods back, and the aforesaid troops then took possession of the hill where we were first posted. Presently after this, we saw them moving towards the North Bridge, about one mile from said meeting-house; we then immediately went before them, and passed the bridge just before a party of them, to the number of about two hundred, arrived; they there left about one half of those two hundred at the bridge, and proceeded with the rest towards Colonel Barrett’s, about two miles from the said bridge; we then, seeing several fires in the town, thought our houses were in danger, and immediately marched back towards said bridge and the troops who were stationed there, observing our approach, marched back over the bridge, and then took up some of the planks; we then hastened our steps towards the bridge, and when we had got near the bridge, they fired on our men, first, three guns, one after the other, and then a considerable number more, upon which, and not before, (having orders from our commanding officers not to fire until we were fired upon,) we fired upon the regulars, and they retreated. At Concord, and on their retreat through Lexington, they plundered many houses, burnt three at Lexington, together with a shop and a barn, and committed damage, more or less, to almost every house from Concord to Charlestown.” “Lexington, April 23d, 1775. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
“We, JOSEPH BUTLER and EPHRAIM MELVIN, do testify and declare, that when the regular troops fired upon our people at the North Bridge, in Concord, as related in the foregoing depositions, they shot one, and, we believe, two of our people, before we fired a single gun at them.” “Concord, April 23d, 1775. “I, TIMOTHY MINOT, Jun., of Concord, on the nineteenth day of this instant April, after that I had heard of the regular troops firing upon the Lexington men, and fearing that hostilities might be committed at Concord, thought it my incumbent duty to secure my family: After I had secured my family, some time after that, returning towards my own dwelling, and finding that the bridge on the northern part of said Concord, was guarded by regular troops, being a spectator of what happened at said bridge, declare that the regular troops stationed on the bridge, after they saw the men that were collected on the westerly side of said bridge, marched towards said bridge, then the troops returned towards the easterly side of said bridge, and formed themselves, as I thought, for a regular fight, after that, they fired one gun, then two or three more, before the men that were stationed on the westerly part of said bridge fired upon them.” “Lexington, April 23d, 1775. “I, JAMES BARRETT, of Concord, Colonel of a regiment of militia in the county of Middlesex, do testify and say, that on Wednesday morning last, about day-break, I was informed of the approach of a number of the regular troops to the town of Concord, where were some magazines belonging to this province, when there were assembled some of the militia of this and the neighboring towns, when I ordered them to march to the North Bridge, so called, which they had passed and were taking up; I ordered said militia to march to said bridge and pass the same, but not to fire on the King’s troops unless they were first fired upon; we advanced near said bridge, when the said troops fired upon our militia, and killed two men dead on the spot, and wounded several others, which was the first firing of guns in the town of Concord; my detachment then returned the fire, which killed and wounded several of the King’s troops.” “Lexington, April 23d, 1775. “We, BRADBURY ROBINSON, SAMUEL SPRING, THADDEUS BANCROFT, all of Concord, and JAMES ADAMS, of Lincoln, all in the County of Middlesex, all of lawful age, do testify and say, that on Wednesday morning last, near ten of the clock, we saw near one hundred of regular troops, being in the town of Concord, at the North Bridge in said town (so called), and, having passed the same, they were taking up said bridge, when about three hundred of our militia were advancing toward said bridge, in order to pass said bridge, when, without saying anything to us, HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
they discharged a number of guns on us, which killed two men dead on the spot, and wounded several other, when we returned the fire on them, which killed two of them, and wounded several, which was the beginning of hostilities in the town of Concord.” “Concord, April 23d, 1775. “I, JAMES MARR, of lawful age, testify and say, that in the evening of the 18th instant, I received orders from George Hutchinson, Adjutant of the 4th Regiment of the regular troops stations in Boston, to prepare and march, to which order I attended, and marching to Concord, where I was ordered by an officer, with about one hundred men, to guard a certain bridge there; while attending that service, a number of people came along, in order as I supposed, to cross said bridge, at which time a number of regular troops first fired upon them.” “I, EDWARD THORNTON GOULD, of his Majesty’s own regiment of foot, being of lawful age, do testify and declare, that on the evening of the 18th instant, under the order of General Gage, I embarked with the light infantry and grenadiers of the line, commanded by Colonel Smith, and landed on the marshes of Cambridge, from whence we proceeded to Lexington; on our arrival at that place, we saw a body of provincial troops armed, to the number of about sixty or seventy men; on our approach they dispersed, and soon after firing began, but which party fired first I cannot exactly say, as our troops rushed on, shouting, hazzaing, previous to the firing, which was continued by our troops so long as any of the provincials were to be seen. From thence we marched to Concord; on a hill near the entrance of the town, we saw another body of provincials assembled, the light infantry companies were ordered up the hill to disperse them; on our approach they retreated towards Concord, the grenadiers continued the road under the hill towards the town, six companies of light infantry were ordered down to take possession of the bridge which the provincials retreated over; the company I commanded was one of the three companies of the above detachment, went forward about two miles; in the mean time the provincial troops returned, to the number of about three or four hundred; we drew upon the Concord side of the bridge, the provincials came down upon us, upon which we engaged, and gave the first fire: this was the first engagement after the one at Lexington; a continued firing from both parties lasted through the whole day: I myself was wounded at the attack of the bridge, and am now treated with the greatest humanity, and taken all possible care of, by the provincials at Medford. “Medford, April 20th, 1775.” “A paper having been printed in Boston, representing that one of the British troops at the bridge at Concord, was scalped and the ears cut off from the head, supposed to be done in order to dishonor the Massachusetts HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
people, and to make them appear to be savage and barbarous, the following deposition was taken, that the truth may be known. “‘WE, the subscribers, of lawful age, testify and say, that we buried the dead bodies of the King’s troops that were killed at the North Bridge in Concord, on the nineteenth day of April, 1775, where the action first began, and that neither of those persons were scalped, nor their ears cut off, as has been represented. “‘ZECHARIAH BROWN, “‘THOMAS DAVIS, Jun. “‘Concord, May 11th, 1775.’” “Cambridge, May 19th, 1775. “HANNAH ADAMS, wife of Deacon Joseph Adams, of the second precinct in Cambridge, testifieth and saith, that on the nineteenth day of April last past, upon the return of the King’s troops from Concord, divers of them entered our house, by bursting open the doors, and three of the soldiers broke into the room in which I then was, laid on my bed, being scarcely able to walk from my bed to the fire, not having been to my chamber door from my being delivered in child-birth to that time. One of said soldiers immediately opened my curtains with his bayonet fixed, pointing the same to my breast. I immediately cried out ‘For the Lord’s sake do not kill me;’ he replied, ‘Damn you;’ one that stood near said, ‘We will not hurt the woman, if she will go out of the house, but we will surely burn it.’ I immediately arose, threw a blanket over me, went out, and crawled into a corn-house near the door, with my infant in my arms, where I remained until they were gone; they immediately set the house on fire, in which I had left five children and no other person, but the fire was happily extinguished, when the home was in the utmost danger of being utterly consumed. “Cambridge, Second Precinct, 17th May, 1775.” “We, BENJAMIN C OOPER and RACHEL C OOPER, both of Cambridge aforesaid, of lawful age, testify and say, that in the afternoon of the 19th day of April, last, the King’s regular troops, under the command of General Gage, upon their return from blood and slaughter, which they had made at Lexington and Concord, fired more than an hundred bullets into the house where we dwell, through doors, windows, &c.; then a number of them entered the house where we and two aged gentlemen were, all unarmed; we escaped for our lives into the cellar, the two aged gentlemen were immediately most barbarously and inhumanly murdered by them, being stabbed through in many places, their heads mauled, skulls broke, and their brains out on the floor, and the walls of the house” and further saith not.”12 HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1826
Heinrich Heine’s DIE HARZREISE (THE HARZ JOURNEY).
The 2d American edition of Edward Everett’s English translation of Professor Philip Karl Buttmann’s GRIECHISCHE SCHUL-GRAMMATIK, titled GREEK GRAMMAR FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS, FROM THE GERMAN OF PHILIP BUTTMANN (Boston: Cummings, Hilliard, and Company), prepared by George Bancroft and George Henry Bode at the Round Hill School in Northampton.
(At the Concord Free Public Library, under Accession # 10443, is Henry David Thoreau’s personal copy, presented to the library by Sophia Elizabeth Thoreau in 1874. On the front free endpaper is inscribed “D.H. Thoreau / Cambridge / Mass 1833.”)13 AS STUDIED BY THOREAU
12. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study. On July 16, 1859 he would correct a date mistake buried in the body of the text.) 13. During this year Professor Buttmann was issuing his ÜBER DIE ENTSTEHUNG DER STERNBILDER AUF DER GRIECHISCHEN SFÄRE. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
May 1, Monday: At the Round Hill School in Northampton, George Bancroft and George Henry Bode signed the preface to the 2d edition of Edward Everett’s English translation of Professor Philip Karl Buttmann’s BUTTMANN’S GREEK GRAMMAR.
STRAßE PHILIPP BUTTMANN IN BERLIN IS NOT NAMED AFTER THIS PHILOLOGIST.
The Rensselaer field expedition on the Erie Canal needed to stand by for a day due to the large quantity of baggage and bedding that was being loaded onto their canal boat, the LaFayette.
Jonas Wheeler of Concord died at the age of 37.
JONAS WHEELER, son of Jotham Wheeler, was born February 9, 1789, and graduated [at Harvard College] in 1810. He read law with Erastus Root, Esq., of Camden, Maine, and settled in the profession in that town. He was justice of the peace, Colonel in the militia, delegate to form the constitution, a representative and a member of the Senate of Maine, of which he was President the two last years of his life. He died May 1, 1826, aged 37.14 HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1829
Benjamin Apthorp Gould’s ADAM’S LATIN GRAMMAR, WITH SOME IMPROVEMENTS AND THE FOLLOWING ADDITIONS: RULES FOR THE RIGHT PRONUNCIATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE; A METRICAL KEY TO THE ODES OF HORACE; A LIST OF LATIN AUTHORS ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THE DIFFERENT AGES OF ROMAN LITERATURE; TABLES SHOWING THE VALUE OF THE VARIOUS COINS, WEIGHTS, AND MEASURES, USED AMONG THE ROMANS. (Boston: Hilliard, Gray, Little, and Wilkins; and Richardson and Lord). This textbook was in the tradition of Dr. Alexander Adam’s 1772 PRINCIPLES OF LATIN AND ENGLISH GRAMMAR and had the prior endorsement of Harvard College: “This Edition is adopted by the University at Cambridge, Mass. and is recommended to the use of those who are preparing for that Seminary.” ADAM’S LATIN GRAMMAR
The Swiss educator Phokian Clias published a popular physical education textbook called KALISTHENIE (from a Greek word meaning “beauty” and “strength”). Clias favored light to moderate exercise, and rejected ball games for women because they might result in an unfortunate over-enlargement of women’s shoulder and
14. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study. On July 16, 1859 he would correct a date mistake buried in the body of the text.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
pectoral muscles.
Edward Everett edited THE GREEK READER BY FREDERICK JACOBS, PROFESSOR OF THE GYMNASIUM AT GOTHA, AND EDITOR OF THE ANTHALOGICA. FROM THE SEVENTH GERMAN EDITION, ADAPTED TO THE TRANSLATION OF BUTTMAN’S GREEK GRAMMAR. THIRD BOSTON EDITION (Boston: Hilliard, Gray, Little, and Wilkins). HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
This edition would be a required text during the education of Henry Thoreau, and would be found in his personal library after his death.
THE GREEK READER HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
April 1, Wednesday: The American ship Sachem left Bangkok carrying the Chinese conjoined twins Chang and Eng, to Boston and their career in show-biz.
Edward Everett set out to discover what sort of western country it was, that had spawned a personage such as Andrew Jackson.
According to an almanac of the period, “General Guerrero inaugurated as President of the Mexican Republic at Mexico.” CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS
(Which is to say, Vicente Ramon Guerrero Saldana succeeded Guadealupe Victoria.)
Back home in Providence, Rhode Island, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th M 1st 1829 / Today Daniel Puckett from Indiana & his companion Charles Lippincot from Jersey left Providence in the Steam boat for NYork intending to attend the Yearly Meeting approaching at Philads & from thence Daniel expects to return home - Daniel has made several visits at the School, & his testimony, has had a remarkable reach on the mind of some of the children. — I accompanied him to Swanzey to an appointed meeting there, & was well satisfied with his communication. — It is now a longer time than has occured in many years since I have written regularly in my journal, & as I do not feel satisfied with the omission, conclude to attend more to it in future than I have for the Month past. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
June 2, Tuesday: Edward Everett, touring in the west, spoke at a banquet in his honor at Nashville. In the crowd for that event was John Bell, who would become his running-mate in the 4-way 1860 Presidential race that would select Abraham Lincoln.
According to an almanac of the period, “Josiah Quincy inaugurated President of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.” CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS
June 10, Wednesday: Edward Everett, touring in the west, arrived in Lexington, Kentucky where Henry Clay invited him to be his guest at his home outside the city, Ashland.
July 9, Thursday: The Turkish defenders of Erzurum surrendered to the Russians.
Edward Everett returned from his western trip to his home Winter Hill. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1830
This was a year of transition in the public school systems of New England. Prior to this point it was an unchallenged standard that a grammar school would be staffed by one reading master and one writing master, each drawing down a salary of $1,200.00 per annum, plus several “ushers,” male, who would receive $600.00 each. So, salaries being by far the biggest expense of running a school, the yearly budget of a New England grammar school would run in the $4,000.00-to-$5,000.00 range. Roughly half the elementary students at this point were girls, so the boys would be being instructed by one master in one room while the girls were being instructed by the other master in another room. At this point the model began to shift as the population of New England grew more dense, toward a scheme in which boys and girls would be educated in separate schools so that there could be only a single teacher drawing down the $1,200.00 salary. There would be one assistant teacher in such a gender-segregated school, drawing down a salary of $600.00, plus any number of assistants who might be paid perhaps $200.00. How to get someone to work for a mere $200.00 per year? Hire women, they will work damn cheap! Thus the total school budget could be lowered into the $2,000.00-$3,000.00 range.
In contrast with the sort of education that had been provided earlier for the 13-year-old Charles Dickens in the ragged Wellington House Academy near London, however, the educational opportunity offered to David Henry Thoreau in Concord must have been pretty doggone good. In a speech in 1857 Dickens would describe this school he had experienced: [T]he respected proprietor ... was by far the most ignorant man I have ever had the pleasure to know ... one of the worst tempered men perhaps that ever lived, whose business it was to make as much out of us and put as little into us as possible.... [T]hat sort of school ... is a pernicious and abominable humbug altogether. Fortunately, David Henry at the age of 13 was encountering no such poor excuses for human beings and no such poor schooling, and in adult life would be impelled to deliver no such resentful speeches.
So, what was David Henry’s education like at the Concord Academy? One thing we know is that in this year he delivered a declamation based upon the oration that Edward Everett had delivered at Plymouth on December 22, 1824. EVERETT AT PLYMOUTH HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1831
January: Edward Everett published an article in the North American Review on the interpretation of hieroglyphics.15 JEAN-FRANÇOIS CHAMPOLLION
15. Everett had been Emerson’s favorite professor at Harvard College. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1834
February: Volume I of the Reverend Professor Jared Sparks of Harvard College’s THE LIBRARY OF AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. LIBRARY OF AM. BIOG. I
This encompassed four contributions:
•LIFE OF JOHN STARK by Edward Everett LIFE OF JOHN STARK
•LIFE OF CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN by William H. Prescott CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN
•LIFE OF RICHARD MONTGOMERY by General John Armstrong RICHARD MONTGOMERY
•LIFE OF ETHAN ALLEN by the Reverend Professor Jared Sparks LIFE OF ETHAN ALLEN
August 13, Wednesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 13th of 8th M 1834 / Our Meeting was silent but some favour experienced - This Afternoon I have been favoured to feel very quietly & pleasantly. It is comfortable to feel the Mind tendered & sweetened by the fresh incomes of Divine life. Moses Brown called & set some time with us this Afternoon, he showed us a few lines he had recd from Josiah Foster, accompanying the London Epistles both of which we read, that to the Mens & Womens Yearly Meeting. — which produced a Solemnity & quiet over our Minds. — I have had one letter & one verbal account from Newport, which impart that Aunt Nancy is not worse than when we left her. —
The Evening Transcript: The general excitement occasioned by the proceedings of night before last at Charlestown, and which yesterday- for the honor of the city be it said-raged among us with an earnestness corresponding to the atrocious character of that affair, has today, in a good degree, subsided. To the active exertions of the Mayor, and other HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
municipal authorities-the spirit and unanimity with which these were seconded by the whole community, and especially the great meeting called at Faneuil Hall-and finally, to the very commendable course pursued, as will be seen, by the Reverend Bishop Fenwick-must it be attributed, that after so stormy a day, the night passed off without disturbance in any direction. At Charlestown, also, the proceedings of the public meeting undoubtedly had a similar effect. Among all the comment excited by this unprecedented enormity, we have noticed none which more justly describes the nature of the case than that of the Atlas, a portion of which we transfer to our columns. What a scene must this midnight conflagration have exhibited-lighting up the inflamed countenances of an infuriated mob of demons-attacking a convent of women, a seminary for the instruction of young females, and turning them out of their beds, half naked in the hurry of their flight, and half dead with confusion and terror. And this drama, too, to be enacted on the very soil that afforded one of the earliest places of refuge to the puritan fathers of New England-themselves flying from religious persecution in the old world-that their descendants may wax strong and mighty, and in their turn be guilty of the same persecution in the new! We remember no parallel to this outrage in the whole course of history. Turn to the bloodiest incidents of the French Revolution-roll up the curtain that hangs before its most sanguinary scenes-and point us to its equal in unprovoked violence, in brutal outrage, in unthwarted iniquity. It is in vain that we search for it. In times of civil commotion and general excitement- of confusion, and cruelty, and blood-when the edifice of civil society was shaken to its base and crumbling into ruin-when the foundations of the great deep were broken up, and rapine and fire and murder, were sweeping like a torrent over the land-in times like these there was some palliation for violence and outrage, in the tremendously excited state of the public mind. But here there was no such palliation. The Courts of Justice were open to receive complaints of any improper confinement, or unauthorized coercion. The civil magistrates were, or ought to be on the alert, to detect any illegal restraint, and bring its authors to the punishment they deserve. But nothing of the kind was detected. The whole matter was a cool, deliberate, systematized piece of brutality-unprovoked-under the most provoking circumstances totally unjustifiable-and visiting the citizens of the town, and most particularly its magistrates and civil officers, with indelible disgrace. The violation of the tomb in the garden, alone, would seem sufficient to justify these remarks, severe as they HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
are. The feelings with which, yesterday morning, we witnessed the rude exposure of those remains to the glare of the day, and the gaze of an indiscriminate multitude, are such as we hope may never be aroused again. The destruction of the Bishop’s Lodge, in front of the Convent, has not excited much comment; but we cannot forbear expressing our regret-especially since the publication of the course adopted by that prelate on this occasion-that a large and valuable library, consisting of classical and other works, should have been utterly consumed in the common ruin which overwhelmed the whole establishment; not a single book was saved. We rejoice that no occasion arose last night for the application of any of the means provided by the authorities and the citizens generally, for the preservation of good order. Large numbers of volunteers acted as special constables and watchmen during the night, the firemen were on the alert, and the Independent companies had made arrangements for very prompt attendance in case of necessity, but fortunately none of their services were required. MEETING OF THE CATHOLICS. So great was the excitement among the Catholics, that Bishop Fenwick deemed it necessary to call a meeting at the Church in Franklin street. The account of which, we copy from the Gazette of this morning. At 6 o’clock several hundred were assembled, when the Bishop came in and addressed them for about thirty minutes, in a most eloquent and judicious manner. He deserves the warmest commendation from his Protestant fellow citizens, for the admirable style in which he managed this business. Previous to speaking, the Bishop read a part of the fifth chapter of Matthew, containing the following among other verses: “you have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, not to resist eveil: but if one strike thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also the other. “And if a man will contend with thee in judgment, and take away thy coat, let go thy cloak also unto him. And whosoever will force thee one mile, go with him other two. “You have heard that it hath been said, Thou shall love thy neighbor, and hate thy enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you.” Bishop Fenwick then proceeded to address his hearers, embracing several hundred of both sexes. He spoke of the destruction of the Usuline Convent and the adjacent HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
buildings. He spoke also of the beauty and utility of that institution, and alluded to its growing popularity among the intelligent classes, both in this vicinity and at a distance. Among the pupils of the institution were some from Louisiana, and the West India Islands. After denouncing the conduct of the incendiaries in appropriate terms, he asked, “What is to be done? Shall we say to our enemies, you have destroyed our buildings, and we will destroy yours? No, my brethren, this is not the religion of Jesus Christ-this is not in accordance with the spirit of that blessed religion we all profess. Turn not a finger in your own defence, and there are those around you who will see that justice is done you.” The Bishop then complimented the City Authorities and others for the stand they had taken in defence of the rights of the Catholics; and he assured his hearers that they had the sympathies of all respectable citizens. The destruction of the Convent, he said, was an act of the most degraded of the human species, and it met with no favor from the intelligent people of Boston. He impressed upon the minds of his Catholic brethren the fact, that it was not their duty to seek revenge for this vile act; and said that that man was an enemy to the religion he professed, and would put the Catholic Church in jeopardy, who should raise a finger against their opponents at this time. The Bishop said he had no fears that those who were present would act in opposition to his advice and if any acts of violence were committed, it would be by those who, with perhaps a commendable ardor and alacrity, were rushing to their aid from a distance, and who may not have correct information on the subject. He enjoined it upon all present as solemn duty, to inform these individuals, if they should fall in with any of them, of what he had said, and the advice he had just given them. He concluded his admirable remarks-which were delivered in a most impressive manner-by assuring his hearers that the Public Authorities were not idle spectators of what was passing. They are on the alert, (said he) and it is your duty to remain quiet, to remain peaceable, and they will see you righted. GREAT MEETING AT CHARLES TOWN A meeting was called yesterday afternoon by the Selectmen, for the purpose of obtaining an expression of the opinions of the citizens, in regard to the recent outrage. Dr. Thompson was chosen Moderator, and P. Dodge Esq, Secretary. The following resolutions were passed: Resolved, That a liberal reward be offered by the Town, for the detection of the authors of the outrage last night committee. Resolved, That a committee of five persons be appointed HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
to report such resolutions as it may be expedient for the town to adopt, and to nominate a Committee Vigilance. The following persons were appointed: Hon E. Everett, Capt Whipple, John Soley Esq, William Austin Esq, and John Skinner Esq. The above committee retired, but soon returned and reported the following preamble and resolutions: Whereas, The Ursuline Convent, in this town, was attacked last night by a riotous and lawless assemblage, its peaceful and unoffending inmates-consisting exclusively of women and children-driven out, and the Convent, after being pillaged, was, with the adjacent buildings, reduced to ashes, therefore Resolved, unanimously, by the citizens of Charlestown, in town meeting assembled, that we regard with feelings of indignation and horror, the aforesaid lawless acts of midnight violence, committed within the limits of town. Resolved, unanimously, that the citizens here assembled consider it a duty to themselves and the town, to take all proper measures to ascertain the authors and perpetrators of the aforesaid acts of violence and outrage, committed in a manner unexampled in this country-in defiance of the laws, and in violation of those feelings of honor and humanity, by which the innocent and defenceless are place under the protection of all good citizens. Resolved, That it is the incumbent duty of all good citizens, to co-operate with the Selectmen and the magistrates in detecting and bringing to justice all persons concerned as perpetrators and abettors of outrages so discreditable to the community in which we live, and to the country at large. Resolved, That the following persons be appointed a Committee of Vigilance, whose duty it shall be in conjunction with the Selectmen, to take such measures as may be necessary to reserve the public peace, and to detect the perpetrators of the outrages last night committed, biz: Gen N. Austin, Joseph Tufts, Esq, David Devens, Esq, J. K. Frothingham Esq, Capt L. Turner, Dr A. R. Thompson, Capt Joe F. Boyd, Benjamin Thompson Esq, Dr J. S. Hurd, and Wm Sawyer Esq. Resolutions were also passed, authorizing the Committee of Vigilance to offer a suitable reward, not exceeding $1000, for the detection of the projectors of the conflagration, to be paid in proportion to the degree of guilt proved against the offenders, and requesting the Governor of the Commonwealth to offer a suitable reward for a similar purpose. The Rev Mr Byrne, Catholic Priest, made some just and pertinent remarks, and assured the meeting that he had HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
used, and he hoped effectually, the most untiring exertions to prevent a reaction on the part of the Catholics. He was listened to with marked attention. Mr Everett, after reading the resolutions, drawn up by himself, made a few brief, but energetic remarks, and the resolutions were carried nem con. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1835
April 19, Easter Sunday: The orator for Patriots’ Day this year was, again, Representative Edward Everett.
(Although one wonders how he was able to conjoin the message of Easter with the message of revolution, one is certain he was able somehow to accomplish this feat.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
The celebration was staged this year in Lexington rather than Concord.
Richard Henry Dana, Jr. experienced a California Catholic funeral: The next Sunday was Easter Sunday, and as there had been no liberty at San Pedro, it was our turn to go ashore and misspend another Sabbath. Soon after breakfast, a large boat, filled with men in blue jackets, scarlet caps, and various colored under-clothes, bound ashore on liberty, left the Italian ship, and passed under our stern; the men singing beautiful Italian boatsongs, all the way, in fine, full chorus. Among the songs I recognized the favorite “O Pescator dell’ onda.” It brought back to my mind pianofortes, drawing- rooms, young ladies singing, and a thousand other things which as little befitted me, in my situation, to be thinking upon. Supposing that the whole day would be too long a time to spend ashore, as there was no place to which we could take a ride, we remained quietly on board until after dinner. We were then pulled ashore in the stern of the boat, and, with orders to be on the beach at sundown, we took our way for the town. There, everything wore the appearance of a holyday. The people were all dressed in their best; the men riding about on horseback among the houses, and the women sitting on carpets before the doors. Under the piazza of a “pulperia,” two men were seated, decked out with knots of ribbons and bouquets, and playing the violin and the Spanish guitar. These are the only instruments, with the exception of the drums and trumpets at Monterey that I ever heard in California; and I suspect they play upon no others, for at a great fandango at which I was afterwards present, and where they mustered all the music they could find, there were three violins and two guitars, and no other instrument. As it was now too near the middle of the day to see any dancing and hearing that a bull was expected down from the country, to be baited in the presidio square, in the course of an hour or two we took a stroll among the houses. Inquiring for an American who, we had been told, had married in the place, and kept a shop, we were directed to a long, low building, at the end of which was a door, with a sign over it, in Spanish. Entering the shop, we found no one in it, and the whole had an empty, deserted appearance. In a few minutes the man made his appearance, and apologized for having nothing to entertain us with, saying that he had had a fandango at his house the night before, and the people had eaten and drunk up everything. “Oh yes!” said I, “Easter holydays!” “No!” said he, with a singular expression to his face; “I had a little daughter die the other day, and that’s the custom of the country.” Here I felt a little strangely, not knowing what to say, or whether to offer consolation or no, and was beginning to retire, when he opened a side door and told us to walk in. Here I was no less astonished; for I found a large room, filled with young girls, from three or four years of age up to fifteen and sixteen, dressed all in white, with wreaths of flowers HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
on their heads, and bouquets in their hands. Following our conductor through all these girls, who were playing about in high spirits, we came to a table, at the end of the room, covered with a white cloth, on which lay a coffin, about three feet long, with the body of his child. The coffin was lined on the outside with white cloth, and on the inside with white satin, and was strewed with flowers. Through an open door we saw, in another room, a few elderly people in common dresses; while the benches and tables thrown up in a corner, and the stained walls, gave evident signs of the last night’s “high go.” Feeling, like Garrick, between tragedy and comedy, an uncertainty of purpose and a little awkwardness, I asked the man when the funeral would take place, and being told that it would move toward the mission in about an hour, took my leave. To pass away the time, we took horses and rode down to the beach, and there found three or four Italian sailors, mounted, and riding up and down, on the hard sand, at a furious rate. We joined them, and found it fine sport. The beach gave us a stretch of a mile or more, and the horses flew over the smooth, hard sand, apparently invigorated and excited by the salt sea-breeze, and by the continual roar and dashing of the breakers. From the beach we returned to the town, and finding that the funeral procession had moved, rode on and overtook it, about half-way to the mission. Here was as peculiar a sight as we had seen before in the house; the one looking as much like a funeral procession as the other did like a house of mourning. The little coffin was borne by eight girls, who were continually relieved by others, running forward from the procession and taking their places. Behind it came a straggling company of girls, dressed as before, in white and flowers, and including, I should suppose by their numbers, nearly all the girls between five and fifteen in the place. They played along on the way, frequently stopping and running all together to talk to some one, or to pick up a flower, and then running on again to overtake the coffin. There were a few elderly women in common colors; and a herd of young men and boys, some on foot and others mounted, followed them, or walked or rode by their side, frequently interrupting them by jokes and questions. But the most singular thing of all was, that two men walked, one on each side of the coffin, carrying muskets in the coffin, which they continually loaded, and fired into the air. Whether this was to keep off the evil spirits or not, I do not know. It was the only interpretation that I could put upon it. As we drew near the mission, we saw the great gate thrown open, and the padre standing on the steps, with a crucifix in hand. The mission is a large and deserted-looking place, the out-buildings going to ruin, and everything giving one the impression of decayed grandeur. A large stone fountain threw out pure water, from four mouths, into a basin, before the church door; and we were on the point of riding up to let our horses drink, when it occurred to us that it might be consecrated, and we forbore. Just at this moment, the bells set up their harsh, discordant clang; and the procession moved into the court. I was anxious to follow, and see the ceremony, but the horse of one of my companions had become frightened, and was tearing off toward the town; and having thrown his rider, and got one of his feet caught in the saddle, which had slipped, was fast dragging and ripping it to pieces. Knowing that my shipmate could not speak a word of Spanish, and fearing that he would get into difficulty, I was obliged to leave the ceremony and ride after him. I soon overtook him, trudging along, swearing at the horse, and carrying the remains of the saddle, which he had picked up on the road. Going to the owner of the horse, we made a settlement with him, and found him surprisingly liberal. All parts of the saddle were brought back, and, being capable of repair, he was satisfied with six reals. We thought it would have been a few dollars. We pointed to the horse, which was now half way up one of the mountains; but he shook his head, saying, “No importer” and giving us to understand that he had plenty more. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
Having returned to the town, we saw a great crowd collected in the square before the principal pulperia, and riding up, found that all these people– men, women, and children– had been drawn together by a couple of bantam cocks. The cocks were in full tilt, springing into one another, and the people were as eager, laughing and shouting, as though the combatants had been men. There had been a disappointment about the bull; he had broken his bail, and taken himself off, and it was too late to get another; so the people were obliged to put up with a cock-fight. One of the bantams having been knocked in the head, and had an eye put out, he gave in, and two monstrous prize-cocks were brought on. These were the object of the whole affair; the two bantams having been merely served up as a first course, to collect the people together. Two fellows came into the ring holding the cocks in their arms, and stroking them, and running about on all fours, encouraging and setting them on. Bets ran high, and, like most other contests, it remained for some time undecided. They both showed great pluck, and fought probably better and longer than their masters would have done. Whether, in the end, it was the white or the red that beat, I do not recollect; but, whichever it was, he strutted off with the true veni-vidi-vici look, leaving the other lying panting on his beam-ends. This matter having been settled, we heard some talk about “caballos” and “carrera,” and seeing the people all streaming off in one direction, we followed, and came upon a level piece of ground, just out of the town, which was used as a race-course. Here the crowd soon became thick again; the ground was marked off; the judges stationed; and the horses led up to one end. Two fine-looking old gentlemen– Don Carlos and Don Domingo, so called– held the stakes, and all was now ready. We waited some time, during which we could just see the horses twisting round and turning, until, at length, there was a shout along the lines, and on they came– heads stretched out and eyes starting;– working all over, both man and beast. The steeds came by us like a couple of chainshot– neck and neck; and now we could see nothing but their backs, and their hind hoofs flying in the air. As fast as the horses passed, the crowd broke up behind them, and ran to the goal. When we got there, we found the horses returning on a slow walk, having run far beyond the mark, and heard that the long, bony one had come in head and shoulders before the other. The riders were light-built men; had handkerchiefs tied round their heads; and were barearmed and bare-legged. The horses were noble-looking beasts, not so sleek and combed as our Boston stable-horses, but with fine limbs, and spirited eyes. After this had been settled, and fully talked over, the crowd scattered again and flocked back to the town. Returning to the large pulperia, we found the violin and guitar screaming and twanging away under the piazza, where they had been all day. As it was now sundown, there began to be some dancing. The Italian sailors danced, and one of our crew exhibited himself in a sort of West India shuffle, much to the amusement of the bystanders, who cried out, “Bravo!” “Otra vez!” and “Vivan los marineros!” but the dancing did not become general, as the women and the “gente de razon” had not yet made their appearance. We wished very much to stay and see the style of dancing; but, although we had had our own way during the day, yet we were, after all, but ’foremast Jacks; and having been ordered to be on the beach by sundown, did not venture to be more than an hour behind the time; so we took our way down. We found the boat just pulling ashore through the breakers, which were running high, there having been a heavy fog outside, which, from some cause or other, always brings on, or precedes a heavy sea. Liberty-men are privileged from the HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
time they leave the vessel until they step on board again; so we took our places in the stern sheets, and were congratulating ourselves upon getting off dry, when a great comber broke fore and aft the boat, and wet us through and through, filling the boat half full of water. Having lost her buoyancy by the weight of the water, she dropped heavily into every sea that struck her, and by the time we had pulled out of the surf into deep water, she was but just afloat, and we were up to our knees. By the help of a small bucket and our hats, we bailed her out, got on board, hoisted the boats, eat our supper, changed our clothes, gave (as is usual) the whole history of our day’s adventures to those who had staid on board, and having taken a night-smoke, turned-in. Thus ended our second day’s liberty on shore. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
Meanwhile, William Wordsworth was making the most of his 63d birthday, on a high part of the coast of Cumberland, of course by writing a poem: The Sun, that seemed so mildly to retire, Flung back from distant climes a streaming fire, Whose blaze is now subdued to tender gleams, Prelude of night’s approach with soothing dreams. Look round; — of all the clouds not one is moving; ’Tis the still hour of thinking, feeling, loving. Silent, and stedfast as the vaulted sky, The boundless plain of waters seems to lie:— Comes that low sound from breezes rustling o’er The grass-crowned headland that conceals the shore! No ’tis the earth-voice of the mighty sea, Whispering how meek and gentle he can be!
Thou Power supreme! who, arming to rebuke Offenders, dost put off the gracious look, And clothe thyself with terrors like the flood Of ocean roused into its fiercest mood, Whatever discipline thy Will ordain For the brief course that must for me remain; Teach me with quick-eared spirit to rejoice In admonitions of thy softest voice! Whate’er the path these mortal feet may trace, Breathe through my soul the blessing of thy grace, Glad, through a perfect love, a faith sincere Drawn from the wisdom that begins with fear; Glad to expand, and, for a season, free From finite cares, to rest absorbed in Thee!
Whee! — I’m sixty-three! HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1836
January: Professor Edward Everett had written a book review of the latest volume to be published, Volume IV, in the Reverend Professor Jared Sparks’s 10-volume and 15-volume serieses THE LIBRARY OF AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. LIBRARY OF AM. BIOG. IV
This appeared as “Biographies of Anthony Wayne and Sir Henry Vane” in the current issue of the North American Review. David Henry Thoreau would possibly extract from this for use in a Harvard College essay on April 7th. NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW
The material in Volume IV on Sir Henry Vane had been written by Charles W. Upham. It is perfectly possible, that Thoreau went on from this recently published book review to consult the full treatment as provided in that volume (the initial volumes of this series were available to Thoreau in the library of the Institute of 1770 and we know that on September 12th Thoreau would consult Volume V) but due to the fragmentary nature of the surviving evidence, we simply do not know. LIFE OF SIR HENRY VANE HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1838
January: Professor Edward Everett’s “The Discovery of America by the Northmen” (a critical review of ANTIQUITATES AMERICANÆ, SIVE SCRIPTORES SEPTENTRIONALES RERUM ANTE-COLUMBIANARUM, IN AMERICA. SAMLING AF DE I NORDENS OLDSKRIFTER IN DEHOLDTE EFTERRETNINGER OM DE GAMLE NORDBOERS OPDAGELSEREISER TIL AMERICA, FRA DET 10DE TIL DET 14DE AARHUNDREDE (Edidit Societas Regia Antiquariorum Septentrionalium. Hafniæ, 1837) appeared in the North American Review. NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
Henry Thoreau would extract from this for CAPE COD.
CAPE COD: These are the oldest accounts which we have of Cape Cod, PEOPLE OF unless, perchance, Cape Cod is, as some suppose, the same with that CAPE COD “Kial-ar-nes” or Keel-Cape, on which, according to old Icelandic manuscripts, Thorwald, son of Eric the Red, after sailing many days southwest from Greenland, broke his keel in the year 1004; and where, according to another, in some respects less trustworthy manuscript, Thor-finn Karlsefne (“that is, one who promises or is destined to be an able or great man”; he is said to have had a son born in New England, from whom Thorwaldsen the sculptor was descended), sailing past, in the year 1007, with his wife Gudrida, Snorre Thorbrandson, Biarne Grimolfson, and Thorhall Gamlason, distinguished Norsemen, in three ships containing “one hundred and sixty men and all sorts of live stock” (probably the first Norway rats among the rest), having the land “on the right side” of them, “rowed ashore,” and found “auor-aefi (trackless deserts),” and “Strand-ir laang-ar ok sand-ar (long narrow beaches and sand-hills),” and “called the shores Furdu- strand-ir (Wonder-Strands), because the sailing by them seemed long.” According to the Icelandic manuscripts, Thorwald was the first then, — unless possibly one Biarne Heriulfson (i.e. son of Heriulf) who had been seized with a great desire to travel, sailing from Iceland to Greenland in the year 986 to join his father who had migrated thither, for he had resolved, says the manuscript, “to spend the following winter, like all the preceding ones, with his father,” — being driven far to the southwest by a storm, when it cleared up saw the low land of Cape Cod looming faintly in the distance; but this not answering to the description of Greenland, he put his vessel about, and, sailing northward along the coast, at length reached Greenland and his father. At any rate, he may put forth a strong claim to be regarded as the discoverer of the American continent. These Northmen were a hardy race, whose younger sons inherited the ocean, and traversed it without chart or compass, and they are said to have been “the first who learned the art of sailing on a wind.” Moreover, they had a habit of casting their door-posts overboard and settling wherever they went ashore. But as Biarne, and Thorwald, and Thorfinn have not mentioned the latitude and longitude distinctly enough, though we have great respect for them as skilful and adventurous navigators, we must for the present remain in doubt as to what capes they did see. We think that they were considerably further north. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
WINTER 1839/1840 HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
Lecture Season: The 11th course of lectures offered by the Salem Lyceum consisted of:
The Salem Lyceum — 11th Season Boston Musical Institute of Boston The Oratorio of Joseph and His Brethren Orville Dewey Human Progress Andrew P. Peabody Influence of the BIBLE on the Sciences, Poetry, and the Fine Arts Leonard Withington Phariseeism Convers Francis The Huguenots or French Protestants in America George E. Ellis The Persecution of the Quakers J.S.C. Abbott Russia John L. Hayes Volcanic Activity J. Francis Tuckerman of Salem Life and Genius of Ludwig van Beethoven Oliver Wendell Holmes National Prejudices J.S.C. Abbott Louis Philippe B.B. Thatcher A Reading of the lecture by Governor Everett introductory to the course before the “Lowell Institute” of Boston James W. Thompson of Salem The Conditions of a Healthful Literature Thomas B. Fox Education of the Eye Charles Francis Adams, Sr. The Influence of Domestic Manners on the American Revolution Waldo Emerson of Concord Analysis, the Characteristic of the Present Age Henry Ware, Jr. The Biography of the Globe Henry W. Kinsman The Institution of Chivalry and its Influence on Society Edward Hitchcock The Wonders of Science Compared with the Wonders of Romance Reverend John G. Palfrey The Siege and Capture of Louisburg
As lectures began, the endowment of The Lowell Institute had reached to nearly $250,000.00. Fees provided HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
to its lecturers would often exceed the salaries of the most highly paid professors in America.
1st Season of the Lowell Institute Honorable Edward Everett, LL.D. Introductory. Memoir of John Lowell, Jr. 2 lectures Professor Benjamin Silliman, LL.D. Geology 24 lectures Reverend John G. Palfrey, D.D. Evidences of Christianity lectures Professor Thomas Nuttall, A.M. Botany 18 lectures
In those early days, the lecture serieses were quite popular: 8,000 to 10,000 people might apply for tickets to a course. For, as the Lowell Institute’s historian would later boast:
Crude theories and plans for moral and political reforms are not to be found in the Lowell lectures. The selection of lectures and lecturers is made from a broad and comprehensive knowledge of the safe thought and intelligent study of the time.
THE LOWELL INSTITUTE HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1846
April 30, Thursday: The diary of William Cranch Bond of Harvard Observatory reports
a happy day for Cambridge … a day of as pure and unallowed enjoyment as perhaps the world ever gave its votaries.
ASTRONOMY
The occasion was the inauguration dinner and fireworks in honor of a new president for Harvard College, Edward Everett.16 It had been the chemistry professor of Harvard Medical College, the convivial Doctor John White Webster, who had insisted that they must have fireworks.
16. President-elect Everett might have felt like Nanky-Poo in the opera “Madame Butterfly.” His three years in this office would later be characterized as the “most wretched” of his life. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1851
May 26, Monday: Four people were killed and dozens wounded as a nativist mob attacked German immigrants in Hoboken, New Jersey during Pentecost celebrations.
At the American Unitarian Association’s spring convention in Boston, known as the Berry Street Conference, the Reverend Samuel Joseph May introduced a resolution in condemnation of Daniel Webster, Millard Fillmore, Edward Everett, Samuel A. Eliot, the Reverend Professor Jared Sparks, the Reverend Ezra Stiles Gannett, and even the president of the AUS, the Reverend Orville Dewey as accomplices to the wickedness of the Fugitive Slave Law. May charged that Gannett was acting in a manner “utterly subversive of Christian morality and of all true allegiance to God.”17 (Although the initial vote on this day was 72 to 27 to refuse to consider such a resolution, the convention would find that it had not heard the last of it.)
Meanwhile, in England, Unitarianism was doing very well, and thank you for asking:
English Unitarians
1830 200
1851 50,000
The Transcript had been keeping an eye on the more daring ladies: The Turkish Dress. On Saturday afternoon, says the [Boston] Times, a young lady of 18, daughter of a well-known West End citizen, made her appearance on Cambridge Street, accompanied with her father, dressed in a round hat, short dress, fitting tightly, and pink satin trousers.... The same young lady was out yesterday afternoon, for a walk around the Common and upon the Neck.... The “Bee” says the daughter of Dr. Hanson, of this city, appeared in the Bloomer suit at a convention at South Reading last week.
May 29, Thursday: The Worcester Spy was keeping its eye peeled for the more daring ladies: The New Costume. The first Bloomer made its appearance in our city yesterday.
17. The force of such an accusation can be felt if you reflect that this divine here being criticized was a teacher of the new crops of Unitarian reverends, at the Harvard Divinity School. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
SAMUEL JOSEPH MAY
At the Berry Street Conference in Boston, debate began over the Reverend May’s resolution condemning Daniel Webster, Millard Fillmore, Edward Everett, Samuel A. Eliot, the Reverend Professor Jared Sparks, the Reverend Ezra Stiles Gannett, and the Reverend Orville Dewey as “traffickers IN HUMAN FLESH.” May charged that Gannett was acting in a manner “utterly subversive of Christian morality and of all true allegiance to God.” The question became how much the Federal Union was worth, compared with for instance the Laws of God. The Reverend Theodore Parker rose to assert that if and when George Ticknor Curtis, a member of the Reverend Gannett’s Unitarian assembly and an officer charged with local administration of the Fugitive Slave Law, came to his parsonage to take a black fugitive from slavery into custody, he would defend not only with an open Bible but with the sword, the brace of pistols, and the musket which his father had carried at Lexington Green on April 19, 1775. He was, he declared, no “foolish nonresistant,” and one wonders whether he would have had that “open Bible” open to one or another of the same Old Testament passages that would be firmly underlined, while in prison awaiting execution, by Captain John Brown in 1859. This controversy would not be over until 1853, and when it was concluded, it was concluded by instructions to Unitarian ministers that the debate over slavery was driving away potential converts to Unitarianism, and that therefore they should avoid discussion of the peculiar institution of slavery, avoid discussion of Webster, and avoid discussion of the merits of the Fugitive Slave Law — and that those unable to avoid such discussion would be find themselves no longer recognized as Unitarian ministers.
At the Woman’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, the letter of May 20th from Henry C. Wright was read: FLUSHING, Long Island, May 20, 1851. TO THE WOMAN'S RIGHTS CONVENTION. Dear Friends;— * * * The effort being made by yourselves and others to secure to woman her rights as a human being, and her true position in reference to the customs and institutions of society, ought to be, and ere long will be, regarded as one of the most important movements of the age. It involves all that is pure, elevating and endearing in domestic life; all that is lovely, good and great in social life; all that is useful and enduring in religious and social HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
institutions. The abolition of intemperance, war, slavery, and all the individual and social wrongs of mankind, and the regeneration and redemption of the race from the physical, intellectual, social and moral evils that now crush it, must be associated with this movement. I see not how any being, whose destiny is linked with that of human-kind, can treat this subject lightly, or remain indifferent to it. Man and Woman cannot be separated in their destiny. Where woman goes, man must go; where man goes, woman must go; as the one rises or sinks in intelligence, in wisdom and virtue, so must the other rise or fall. * * * Man cannot be saved without the aid of woman; woman cannot be saved without the aid of man. United in love, in counsel and effort, progress in wisdom and goodness, towards the heavenly and divine, is certain; disunited in affection, in interest, in plans or in their execution, degradation and ruin must follow. This should be settled as a fixed fact in the minds of all who take part in this movement. * * * Whatever right of property or person, of government or religion; in the family, in the market, in the church, the court, the cabinet, legislative hall, or in the public assembly, belongs to man, belongs also to woman. In arranging and conducting the affairs of life in regard to our domestic, pecuniary, social, religious and civil concerns, this fact is denied or disregarded. To enlighten the understanding and consciences of men, and to arouse their moral nature in regard to this great law of our being, should be one great aim of all who are interested in this enterprise. In asserting your Humanity, you assert the fact that whatever right belongs to one human being, belongs to each and every one, without regard to sex, complexion, condition, caste or country. Woman is a human being; and it is a self-evident truth that whatever right belongs to man by virtue of his membership in the human family, belongs to her by the same tenure. This truth is not to be reasoned about; it is self-evident. No power in the universe can have the right to put woman in a position of subjection to man, or man in subjection to woman. As regards their relations to each other, they are equals; and neither can justly be held responsible, as subject to any power but the Divine. It is not right or expedient to submit this question to the contingency of a discussion, for you could not submit it if the decision were against you. Why appeal to a tribunal at all, whose decision, in this matter you have determined not to abide by, if it is against you? To do so would be neither dignified nor honest. Dear friends, permit me to remind you not to be disheartened though few join you. There are tens of thousands interested in this movement who have not courage to become a part of it. Be more anxious to plant yourselves on the rock of eternal truth, and to abide there, than to increase your numbers. Truth goes not by numbers, but is instinct with divine life, and it must triumph. * * * May truth, in regard to the rights and position of woman, and HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
to her connexion with the true development and destiny of our nature, be your aim, and uncompromising fidelity to that truth, your endeavor. Yours truly, HENRY C. WRIGHT HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
May 29: It is evident that the virtues of plants are almost completely unknown to us– And we esteem the few with which we are better acquainted unreasonably above the many which are comparatively unknown BIGELOW to us. Bigelow says –“It is a subject of some curiosity to consider, if the knowledge of the present Materia Medica were by any means to be lost, how many of the same articles would again rise into notice and use. Doubtless a variety of new substances would develop unexpected powers, while perhaps the poppy would be shunned as a deleterious plant, and the cinchona might grow unmolested upon the mountains of Quito.” Sawyer regards Nux vomica among the most valuable. B. says 1817 “We have yet to discover our anodynes & our emetics, although we abound in bitters, astringents, aromatics, and demulcents. In the present state of our knowledge we could not well dispense with opium and ipicacuanha, yet a great number of foreign drugs, such as gentian, columbo, chamomile, kino, catechu, cascarilla, canella, &c. for which we pay a large annual tax to other countries, might in all probability be superceded by the indigenous products of our own. It is certainly better that our own country people should have the benefit of collecting such articles, than that we should pay for them to the Moors of Africa, or the Indians of Brazil.” The Thorn apple Datura stramonium (Apple of Peru –Devil’s Apple –Jamestown Weed) “emigrates with great facility, and often springs up in the ballast of ships, and in earth carried from one country to another.” It secretes itself in the hold of vessels –& migrates –it is a sort of cosmopolitan weed –a roving weed –what adventures– What historian knows when first it came into a country! He quotes Beverly’s Hist. of Virginia as saying that some soldiers in the days of Bacon’s rebellion –having eaten some of this plant –which was boiled for salad by mistake –were made natural fools & buffoons by it for 11 days, without injury to their bodies?? The root of a biennial or perennial will accumulate the virtues of the plant more than any other part. BIGELOW B says that Pursh states that the sweetscented Golden Rod Solidago odora “has for some time (i.e. before 1817] been an article of exportation to China, where it fetches a high price.” And yet it is known to very few New Englanders. BIGELOW “No botanist, says B. even if in danger of starving in a wilderness, would indulge his hunger on a root or fruit taken from an unknown plant of the natural order Luridae, of the Multisiliquae, or the umbelliferous aquatics. On the contrary he would not feel a moment’s hesitation in regard to any of the Gramina, the fruit of the Pomaceae, and several other natural families of plants, which are known to be uniformly innocent in their effects” The aromatic flavor of the Checquer Berry is also perceived in the Gaultheria hispidula; in Spiraea ulmaria and the root of Spiraea lobata –and in the birches. GINSENG He says Ginseng, Spigelia, Snake-root, &c. form considerable articles of exportation. The odor of Skunk cabbage is perceived in some N.A. currants –as Ribes rigens of MX on high mts– At one time the Indians above Quebec & Montreal were so taken up with searching for Ginseng that they could not be hired for any other purpose. It is said that both the Chinese & the Indians named this plant from its resemblance to the figure of a man The Indians used the bark of Dirca palustris or Leather Wood for their cordage. It was after the long continued search of many generations that these qualities were discovered. BIGELOW Of Tobacco, Nicotiana Tabacum, B. says after speaking of its poisonous qualities “Yet the first person who had courage & patience enough to persevere in its use, until habit had overcome his original disgust, eventually found in it a pleasing sedative, a soother of care, and a material addition to the pleasures of life. Its use, which originated among savages, has spread into every civilized country; it has made its way against the declamations of the learned, and the prohibitions of civil & religious authority, and it now gives rise to an extensive branch of agriculture, or of commerce, in every part of the globe.” Soon after its introduction into Europe –“The rich indulged in it as a luxury of the highest kind; and the poor gave themselves up to it, as a solace for the miseries of life.” Several varieties are cultivated. BIGELOW In return for many foreign weeds we have sent abroad, says B. “The Erigeron Canadense & the prolific families HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
of Ambrosia & Amaranthus.”
“The Indians were acquainted with the med. properties of more than one species of Euphorbia” Night shade is called bitter sweet. Poke also called Garget V root of Arum Triphyllum –Dragon Root or Ind. turnip V Gold Thread Coptis trifolia V sanguinaria Canadensis or Blood Root V Conium Maculatum Hemlock V Cicuta maculata Am. Hemlock V Asarum Canadense Wild Ginger snake root–colt’s foot– V Hyoscyamus Niger Henbane V sweetscented Golden rod GINSENG V Panax quinquefolium Ginseng. V Polygala Senega Seneca snake root V veratrum viride Am. Hellebore V Dirca palustris Leather Wood.
I noticed the button bush May 25th around an elevated pond or mudhole –its leaves just beginning to expand– This slight amount of green contrasted with its –dark craggly naked looking stem & branches –as if subsiding waters had left them bare –looked Dantesque –& infernal. It is not a handsome bush at this season it is so slow to put out its leaves & hide its naked & unsightly stems. The Andromeda ligustrina is late to leave out. malus excelsa –amara –florida –palustris –gratissima –ramosa –spinosa ferruginea –aromatica –aurea – rubigenosa –odorata –tristis –officinalis!! herbacea –vulgaris –aestivalis –autumnalis riparia –odora –versicolor HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
–communis –farinosa –super septa pendens malus sepium virum Nov. Angliae –succosa saepe formicis preoccupata –vermiculosa aut verminosa –aut a vermisbus corrupta vel erosa –Malus semper virens et viridis viridis –cholera –morbifera or dysenterifera –(M. sylvestrispaludosa –excelsa et ramosa superne –difficilis conscendere (aut adoepere), fructus difficillimus stringere –parvus et amara.) Picis perforata or perterebata – rupestris –agrestis –arvensis –Assabettia –Railroad apple –Musketaquidensis –dew apple rorifera. The apple whose fruit we tasted in our youth which grows passim et nusquam,– Our own particular apple malus numquam legata vel stricta. (Malus cujus fructum ineunte aetate gustavi quae passim et nusquam viget) cortice muscosâ Malus viae-ferreae HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1854
May: The family of the William Jackman who had become the author of a captivity-and-escape narrative sold their land claim near Madison, Wisconsin and traveled overland to Prairie Du Chein, where they boarded the War Eagle and traveled on the Mississippi River to Prescott, Wisconsin.
A formal “conversation” was staged in Waldo Emerson’s study, between 2 and 3 in the afternoon, with Bronson Alcott and Emerson as two of the conversants, the audience consisting of young Harvard men, primarily from the Harvard Divinity School. Among these was Edwin Morton of Plymouth. Emerson opened the event by stating with confidence that literature could be, in America, a young man’s occupation and bread- winner. There followed a consideration of various Harvard professors and tutors, such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, George Ticknor, Edward Everett, Jones Very, James Walker, etc. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1863
November 19, Thursday: President Abraham Lincoln took the train down from Washington DC and delivered a brief address at a ceremony dedicating the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania as a national cemetery. As he delivered his Gettysburg Address, he was probably in the early stages of infection by the small pox. READ THE FULL TEXT
During the early 1860s, in the early throes of our civil war, our Declaration of Independence had been being very carefully reexamined and reconsidered. In this Gettysburg Address it found itself transformed into “first and foremost a living document for an established society” and this president’s brief words of dedication would became in due course “an American sacred text” (Maier, Pauline. AMERICAN SCRIPTURE: MAKING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997, page 207). As in 1776, the power of the locution would come from the fact that rather than echoing what all Americans presumed, it broadcast what a number of them were preparing to ram down the throats of the others as what all Americans henceforth were to presume.
Lincoln wasn’t the only orator on this occasion. According to the Steubensville Weekly Herald, “President Lincoln was there, too,” We don’t know for certain sure which particular phases Lincoln used in his brief address. There are a number of drafts of the speech, which differ somewhat from one another, and there is the problem that one reporter who bothered to transcribe the President’s words from the podium, either indulged in free phrase substitution on his reportorial notepad or else faithfully recorded phrases that are somewhat less polished than those we now read in one or another of the manuscript documents. The Providence, Rhode Island Journal would report not only of the brief address’s power but also of its “charm”: We know not where to look for a more admirable speech than the brief one which the President made at the close of Mr. Everett’s oration.... Could the most elaborate and splendid oration be more beautiful, more touching, more inspiring than those thrilling words of the President? They have in our humble judgment the charm and power of the very highest eloquence. The Harrisburg Patriot and Union would be considerably less tactful than this: We pass over the silly remarks of the President; for the credit of the Nation we are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them and that they shall no more be repeated or thought of. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
Edward Everett –who had himself addressed the assembly for a solid two hours– would write to the President after hearing his brief address, “I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.”
EVERETT’S TWO HOURS HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1865
January 15, Sunday: In Concord, Moses Prichard died.
Edward Everett died in Boston at the age of 71 (the body would be placed in the Mount Auburn Cemetery of Cambridge).
Thomas Carlyle took the last ms leaves of his THE HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II OF PRUSSIA, CALLED FREDERICK THE GREAT to the post-office. He would comment that his labors on this history had nearly killed him:18 Evening still vivid to me. I was not joyful of mood; sad rather, mournfully thankful, but indeed half-killed, and utterly wearing out and sinking into stupefied collapse after my “comatose” efforts to continue the long fight of thirteen years to finis. On her [Jane’s] face, too, when I went out, there was a silent, faint, and pathetic smile, which I well felt at the moment, and better now!
18. William Allingham would characterize this work as “the reductio ad absurdum of Carlyleism.” Simon Heffer would say: The book is shot through with Carlyle’s fundamental prejudices. It is a pursuit of a hero, one made all the more special by his self-reclamation from a degenerate, effete youth. It is a celebration of Germanism, more particularly Prussianism, and the resolute process of Germanisation. Above all, it is the text adduced, quite fairly, by Carlyle’s critics to prove his belief in the “might is right” thesis. Carlyle paints Frederick as a man of peace who, in his desire for peace, had frequently to go to war, because of the provocations of his rivals. “He is a very demon for fighting,” says his biographer. He is also “the stoutest King walking the Earth just now, may well be a universal one. A man better not to be meddled with, if he will be at peace, as he professes to wish being.” ...The need to fight to maintain peace was an excuse used by Adolf Hitler for his conquests, with less cause than in the case of Frederick. But the real example for Hitler was in Frederick’s power of recovery when all seemed lost, in the penultimate winter of the Seven Years’ War. That was why Goebbels read the book to his Führer in the bunker, to cheer him up; and it is the philosophical smell of the book, as much as its style and structure, that alienates modern readers.... Carlyle never quite gives a naked message of “might is right”; but endorses might being right when might is backed by veracity. One then has to argue with Carlyle’s judgment of what constitutes veracity, a quality often concomitant with inhumanity. PROTO-NAZISM HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1876
It was during this year that this most pleasant photo-op of the series of five still most impressive Harvard College HNICs was created:19
JOSIAH QUINCY, SR. JAMES WALKER (Mr. Quincy had expired in 1864, Mr. Everett in 1865, Mr. Sparks in 1866, Mr. Walker in 1874, and Mr. Felton in 1862 — it would appear from this information that for purposes of this PhotoShopping they had not been seated in the order of their deaths.)
19. By the way: Then as now, Harvard has been the College of Presidents. Then it was the college which had attempted education upon two Presidents, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, whereas in our later timeframe it would be the college which attempted education upon a brace of President Roosevelts (it would be left to Yale to perpetrate a brace of Bushs). HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
1877
While Frederic Auguste Bartholdi was marking time on his main project, a humongous bronze statue to be placed on Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor, he teamed up with H.H. Richardson to do four bas-relief friezes for the four sides of the Florentine tower over the Brattle Square Church, at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Clarendon Street in Boston.20 The topics of the four friezes were scoped out as Baptism, Communion, Marriage, and Death. The statues at the corners of these friezes are now referred to by Bostonians as “The Beanblowers,” but were intended to represent a quite different conceit, to wit, Angels of Judgment blowing golden trumpets. The heads of the figures on the bas-relief friezes themselves were modeled on canonized Boston mofos, such as for instance: Waldo Emerson Edward Everett William Lloyd Garrison Nathaniel Hawthorne Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Wendell Phillips Charles Sumner
To the best of my understanding, our Henry Thoreau ain’t up there. Why ain’t he up there? –Why should he be, since his life was incomplete, and a failure? Per an article to be published in the following year in a religious organ,21
[T]he incompleteness and failure of [Thoreau’s] life cannot be concealed by all the verbiage and praise of his biographers.
20. This edifice is now run by Baptists. 21. Catholic World 1878, page 296, article by Father Isaac Hecker. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
No, as far as these people were concerned –even this “Father Thomas” who had known him personally– Henry was dead and buried and he could damn well stay dead and buried:
(“A Bird’s-Eye View of Boston” from the north as of this year, drawn by John Bachmann with color lithography by Louis Prang, should be available as a 22” x 27 1/2” reproduction in color on text weight paper in a heavy mailing tube, from Historic Urban Plans, Inc., Box 276, Ithaca NY 14851 (607 272-MAPS), for roughly $21.50 inclusive of postage.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
2006
February 26, Sunday: A column in the New York Times mentioned the Harvard presidents of Henry Thoreau’s era and quoted Henry, who had as a student been in what today we might term Harvard University’s “comp-lit” concentration: How the Liberal Arts Got That Way By MATTHEW PEARL BEFORE Lawrence Summers announced his resignation as president of Harvard on Tuesday, the last upheaval of equal magnitude at the university was 140 years ago. That older drama was perhaps the most consequential episode in the history of American higher education; one that not only created the institution where a Larry Summers could flourish as a graduate student and professor, but oddly also laid the seeds of his presidential breakdown. From 1846 to 1868, Harvard had five consecutive presidents whose short-lived and frustrated tenures evoke Mr. Summers’s five-year stint. The era, like our own, was one of strong discord over the central purpose of a university. Then, the controlling movement was a reaction against the liberal flowering of the 1830s that had briefly expanded the fields of study offered and the freedoms of students to enjoy them; today’s melees concern, among other lesser disputes, the distribution of money and attention among the many divergently interested departments of the university. Until the 1860s, Harvard presidents were anointed by and answered to the university’s Board of Overseers, a powerful group of political and religious establishment figures that included the governor of Massachusetts, along with other dignitaries appointed by the Legislature. But in 1865 the Legislature passed a law democratizing things, allowing Harvard alumni to elect the overseers, in an effort said to “emancipate” Harvard (a loaded term in 1865) from politics, and render it an independent rather than state institution. In the years leading up to this transition, the Harvard presidents fought against the tide of liberalism, limiting the number of disciplines that could be taught and, within those disciplines, maneuvering student choices toward rigidly designed classical studies. When Ralph Waldo Emerson remarked to Henry David Thoreau that all branches of learning were taught at Harvard, Thoreau recalled of his own time there that, yes, “all the branches, but none of the roots.” Students were insulated, reprimanded for congregating in groups, raising their voices and even “throwing reflections of sunshine around the College Yard.” All five of the transitory line of pre-1865 presidents –Edward Everett, Jared Sparks, James Walker, Cornelius Conway Felton and Thomas Hill– had been Harvard students themselves, and all but one were clergymen. They fought in the humanities against the expansion of teaching foreign languages, and in the sciences HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
against the spread of Darwinism, which was seen as antireligious.
Harvard students not only pushed back against the institutional emphasis on recitations, the prevailing pedagogical method of memorization and repetition, but also pushed the culture on campus outward and into the larger world. When the Civil War broke out, Harvard students volunteered to fight in surprisingly large numbers. President Felton, whose death by illness made his tenure less than two years, is said to have deducted points from Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.’s grades when Holmes enlisted in the Army. He was also said to have taken the time to write a letter to another president –Abraham Lincoln– during the height of the war, to inform him that Robert Todd Lincoln, then a Harvard student, had been caught smoking. The 1865 law shaking up the Board of Overseers allowed the university to adjust more nimbly to events outside its gates. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
But the biggest result, four years later, was the selection of the next president, the chemist Charles William Eliot, who ushered in large-scale reforms that marked the renaissance in liberal arts education, not just at Harvard but also across the country. Eliot, only 35 at the time of his inauguration, published a two- part series on “The New Education” in The Atlantic Monthly, setting forth a national agenda for educational reform. The presidents of colleges like Cornell and Johns Hopkins were compelled to coordinate their efforts with Harvard’s. Appropriately, Eliot remained president for 40 years, the longest term in the university’s history, and brought Harvard into the first years of the 20th century. In a long-gestating paradox, however, the very changes that freed Eliot to renovate Harvard with a more independent and egalitarian framework also did in Larry Summers by leaving Harvard presidents without an identifiable constituency or a body to which, in the end, he may be said to answer. The president could no longer concentrate on pleasing the finite body of individuals who approved and could censure him. From Eliot’s term onward, each president had to be acutely aware of negotiating between competing and in many cases incompatible demands from the various factions — the administrative governing boards, the faculty, the students, the alumni, the donors and those holding the federal purse strings. When Larry Summers, through a series of perceived missteps and affronts, lost the support of the most vocal part of the faculty, the Harvard Corporation could not really have saved him even if it wanted to, because it was no longer clear who was in charge. The Harvard experience had long ago been liberated from politics in its most concrete attachment –that tie to the Massachusetts Legislature– but it has been politicized in a different way, subjected to the realm of public politics and opinion. By removing the president’s identifiable overseers (in name and role), the president himself was divested of concentrated power because any or all pressure groups could cause problems for him. There had been a time –1829, to be precise– when Josiah Quincy had been able to shift seamlessly between being the mayor of Boston and the president of Harvard, and Everett had been governor before taking office in Harvard Yard. Today the Harvard president, in a way, has a much broader constituency than any mayor or governor, but also a blurrier one. Harvard, as our dominant university, has become a stand-in for the national education culture, and the Harvard president has become everyone’s college president. So, if the culmination of events at Harvard in 1865 was a factor in reshaping higher education in America for the last 140 years, will we see a similar impact from the Summers affair? I suspect that this time it will be mostly for Harvard alone. The melodrama of the Summers affair has made for a great news story, as does the assumption that any action at Harvard carries a national influence. But overexcited observers on both sides will find few substantive ripples outside Harvard Yard. True, it might make a few other college presidents a bit warier of offending their faculties, or make them think twice before HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
pressing for big changes quickly. But in the end, and in defiance of the overwhelming level of national news media attention all week, this incident may commemorate how America has outgrown Harvard. It is still our most prestigious brand; but as a Harvard alumnus, I find it especially obvious that today there are so many equally outstanding institutions, public as well as private, and such a huge proportion of the public is now college-educated, that Harvard no longer dictates the dominant model for the American university. The uproar of 1865 resulted in Harvard becoming more egalitarian and left nobody in charge — in a sense, American education has made a similar transition over the last century, no longer leaving Harvard with the necessity of being in control. This may also leave Harvard, finally, free to shape its modern identity on its own terms.
Matthew Pearl is the author of “The Dante Club” and the forthcoming novel “The Poe Shadow.”
Copyright 2006, The New York Times Company
“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING: HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Prof. Edward Everett HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2014. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at
“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST
Prepared: October 14, 2014 HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT
GENERATION HOTLINE
This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button. HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT PROFESSOR EDWARD EVERETT
Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.
First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with